Humanitarian and Forestry Investment Organizations Join Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance

Unique alliance of private-sector and non-governmental organizations promote forestry projects that combat climate change, protect biodiversity and support local communities

Washington, DC (April 16, 2007) – The Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) announced today that two new organizations, CARE International and Sustainable Forestry Management (SFM), have joined its growing list of members, including BP, Weyerhaeuser, SC Johnson, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy and Wildlife Conservation Society.  The CCBA is made up of top research institutions, corporations and non-profit groups promoting the development of high-quality climate change mitigation projects that also incorporate biodiversity conservation and contribute to sustainable development.

The CCBA spearheaded the development of the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity (CCB) Standards, which allow private-sector companies, multi-lateral funding organizations, and government agencies to screen land-based carbon projects and identify those representing the highest-value and least-risk investments. The Standards and associated scorecard can be downloaded at www.climate-standards.org.

“The CCBA has established itself as the world’s leading group providing assurance to the marketplace concerning carbon forestry activities, and we have integrated its standards into our project development process,” said Alan Bernstein Chief Executive Officer of SFM.  “The holistic approach defined by the CCB Standards, including community and biodiversity as well as carbon impacts, is fundamental to our business and essential to achieving real sustainable development.”

Tropical deforestation is responsible for almost a quarter of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions—twice the amount coming from all the world’s cars and trucks.  Forestry projects using the CCB Standards are helping to mitigate this impact—by reducing CO2 emissions through forest conservation activities and by sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere through forest restoration activities.

“The CCB Standards are a unique tool for helping project developers realize the ambitious goal of simultaneously mitigating climate change, reducing poverty and conserving biodiversity,” said Dr. Charles Ehrhart, Coordinator of the Poverty-Climate Change Initiative for CARE International. “In addition, the CCBA Standards help the buyers of carbon credits know what they are getting – and these assurances are critical to ensuring market health.  CARE is excited to join the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance and help strengthen the market for multiple-benefit forestry projects.”

A major milestone for the CCBA was reached earlier this year when the first two forestry projects, in Panama and in China, were independently certified under the CCB Standards.  Several dozen projects, being developed under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism and for the voluntary carbon market, are now using the CCB Standards, and the list is growing rapidly.  In addition, an increasing number of investors are requesting “CCB carbon” by name, and leading market players, including the World Bank and EcoSecurities, are applying the CCB Standards to their extensive project portfolios. Furthermore, the Chinese Government has endorsed the Standards as a valuable tool for helping their country develop sustainable forestry initiatives.

“I’m very excited that CARE and SFM have joined the CCBA, and believe they will bring valuable new energy, expertise and perspectives to our work,” said Toby Janson-Smith, CCBA Director.  “CARE, with its unparalleled experience developing projects that benefit disadvantaged communities, will enable to CCBA and its standards to better address the needs of the world’s poor.  And SFM, as one of the world’s leading investors in carbon forestry activities, will help sharpen the market-based work of the CCBA,” added Janson-Smith.

As one of the world’s largest humanitarian NGOs, CARE works in 66 countries delivering emergency assistance and helping poor communities achieve their development aspirations.  CARE plans to develop a number of multiple-benefit, land-based carbon projects using the CCB Standards. 

SFM is a major investor in forest restoration, conservation and sustainable forest management projects, primarily in the tropics, and is already applying the CCB Standards to these efforts.  Going forward, it will seek to independently certify its projects with the Standards. 

“Tropical and sub-tropical forests are where climate change, biodiversity and human development intersect,” said Eric Bettelheim, Executive Chairman of SFM.  “The CCBA and the standards it has developed are unique in recognising this and in providing practical methods for investment.  We are proud to be joining an alliance of organisations which recognise the critical importance of our remaining forests and all of their inhabitants.”

More about the organizations:

CARE (www.care.org) fights root causes of poverty in the world’s poorest communities. CARE places special focus on working alongside poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. In 66 countries, women are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to improve education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. Each year, CARE helps tens of millions of people around the world effect real, positive changes in their lives.

Sustainable Forestry Management Ltd (SFM) (www.sfm.bm) was formed in 1999 by leaders in emerging market business development, conservation and human rights advocacy to realise the opportunity to make private equity level returns from investment in tropical and sub-tropical forests on a sustainable and ethical basis. The SFM Group of companies is active in Africa, the Americas, and Australasia.  SFM is establishing itself as the world’s leading company in ethical and sustainable land use incorporating emerging environmental markets. It is building a global portfolio of forest assets to become a leading supplier of carbon and other environmental credits and offsets to the world’s industrial, commercial and financial participants in emissions and environmental trading schemes.

The Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA / www.climate-standards.org) seeks to promote the development of multiple-benefit forestry projects around the world and the creation of supportive policy and market incentives to foster such activities. CCBA Members are: BP, CARE, Conservation International, GFA, Hamburg Institute for International Economics, Intel, Pelangi, SC Johnson, Sustainable Forestry Management, The Nature Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society and Weyerhaeuser.  Advising Institutions are: CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research), CATIE (Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) and the World Agroforestry Centre (WAC/ICRAF).  The CCBA led a two-year, global, multi-stakeholder development process to create the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards – now the leading standard for designing and evaluating carbon forestry projects.