Costa Rican newspaper, La Nacion, featured with great enthusiasm the story of a women group in the indigenous region of Talamanca producing organic chocolate as means to support their families. As I read it I was thinking of the social benefit of passing traditional knowledge to new generations while achieving sustainable development in underrepresented areas of the developing world. Great stuff! ( image: nacion.com)
As I reached the end of the article, I realized that there is a more complex connection to the community development miracle. The project was funded through a carbon capture grant of the World Bank with Japanese funds. The grant is intended to develop a carbon sequestration market based on agroforestry of multi strata perennial crops in the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica. This is a pilot project, part of much larger carbon sequestration portfolio of the World Bank.
I cant help myself from having mixed feelings. One part of my is very happy to see indigenous communities received help to overcome the challenges society has imposed on their lifestyles. At the same time, I can not hide my concern over the idea that carbon credits are being created from activities that have questionable additionality. Carbon sequestration from agroforestry in tropical areas poses many questions, and developing a market without a clear understanding of how to measure carbon exchange in the tropical biotas limits the accountatibility of the carbon sequestration portfolios. We can not equate sustainable development to carbon sequestration, even if the outcome is delicious organic chocolate.
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