Kyoto Protocol

It is an irony that the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol currently excludes tree-crop plantations like coconut, oil palm and rubber from carbon sequestration credits. This is surprising since these long-lived perennial plantations are very similar to forest plantations in the carbon benefits they offer.

While the only major commercial product of the forests is timber, in addition to timber, the plantation crops give regular harvests of fruit or latex providing renewable energies (oil as a substitute for petroleum fuel, biomass and biogas) and substitution products (natural latex as a substitute for synthetic rubber) which make them readily compliant with other CDM projects. Also, in the case of coconut, most of the palms are owned by smallholders who comply with other main CDM goals like poverty alleviation and sustainability.