Activities Implemented Jointly in the Forestry Sector: Conceptual and Operational Fallacies

By Philippe Cullet and Annie Patricia Kameri-Mbote

This article considers the use of joint implementation generally and with respect to the Climate Change Convention specifically as a means of achieving environmental objectives. The authors discuss how Joint Implementation or Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ) raise a number of concerns in the context of the Climate Change Convention and that such activities can actually conflict with both domestic and international goals.

The authors analyze AIJ forestry projects aimed at achieving Climate Change Convention goals and find that the basic premise of AIJ forestry projects-namely their carbon sequestration potential-has not been proven and that such projects in actuality have only a limited capacity for carbon sequestration. Such projects may also conflict with the goals of sustainable development by focusing on forestry potential for carbon sequestration to the exclusion of other forestry uses. In conclusion, the article urges that AIJ projects to implement the Climate Control Convention should be geared primarily toward fossil fuel emission reduction rather than toward afforestation.