Category Archives: Carbon offsets

Bob Taylor’s – World Forestry Tour (video)

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Izabal Agro-Forest recently had the privilege of hosting Bob Taylor and an impressive group of influencers in the wood business, in Guatemala.   Their visit was part of a world forestry tour that Bob Taylor has been planning for some time now, the main objective is/was to learn.  The group is planting trees in Cameroon, Hawaii, and Washington, and they wanted to see examples of forward-thinking forestry operations, in the hopes to exchange ideas and meet people with similiar visions of what the tonewood & forestry sector will look like in the future.

We spent the day reviewing our operations in Izabal, and had a great day listening and learning from this very inspiring group of individuals (listed below).  Thank you to the talented Paul Akers for documenting the visit:

If you would like information about Izabal Agro-Forest’s sustainable investments please contact us here.

1.  Bob Taylor  – Co-ower/operator Taylor Guitars, Crelicam, a Cameroonian ebony company and Paniolo Tonewoods, an Hawaiian company focused on growing several wood species, including Koa (TaylorGuitars website)
2.  Steve McMinn  – Owner and operator of Pacific Rim Tonewoods, a spruce supplier (Pacific Rim Tonewoods website)
3.  Kevin Burke  – Pacific Rim Tonewoods, primary log buyer and project manager
4.  Scott Paul  – Previously an important forest campaigner for Greenpeace,  current Natural Resource Sustainability Director for Taylor Guitars
5.  Vidal De Teresa – The is the owner and operator of Madinter Tonewoods as well as partner in Crelicam, a Cameroonian ebony company (Madinter website)
6.    Nicholas Koch  – Forester with 14 yrs experience, Forest Solutions website
7.   Paul Akers  – he is an entrepreneur, author, speaker. He is the founder and president of FastCap. Paul Akers website

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The Final Warning Bell

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In Brazil deforestation repesents 70% of the country’s carbon emissions (photo courtesy of the WWF)

The final warning bell has been rung by a UN Climate Change report.  The ongoing destruction of the remaining tropical rain forests and the advance of the pine beetle into the extreme north has contributed to 1/5th of the carbon being delivered into our precious atmosphere, much more than all the motorized vehicles, ships and factories on the planet.  Agriculture is the main polluter and negative factor in this equation.  Here in Guatemala, just to mention an example, at certain times of the year, the burning of the cane fields on the Pacific coast, is enough to darken the sky and cause an ash fall of choking dimensions in nearby communities.

The question is why has forestry not been able to play a more important and sustainable role in mitigating climate change?  One obvious reply is that the global public is kept in the dark by a disinterested media, passive educators and politicians looking only as far as the next vote.

But then what about reforestation companies and the forest investment companies?  Why are they not playing a greater role in the sequestration of carbon and so the salvation of our planet as we know it.  Again the answer is painful:  enormous areas covered by mono-cultures of short term tree crops for mainly pulp or biomass using species (e.g. Pine,Eucaliptus or Melina) that are most often foreign to the tropics with negative effects on the soil.  Sustainable agroforestry is one answer.  India has just passed more progressive legislation that removes many of the bureaucratic restrictions on the planting and use of new forests by farmers,that is expected to increase the forest cover there by millions of hectares.  Both investors, forestry companies and governments need to pay more attention to native forest species for lumber and food while considering the infinite possibilities of sub-canopy planting.

In addition, especially Universities should be playing an important role in environmentally correct reforestation and habitat recovery, but sadly most often their endowment funds invest in mono-cultures and doubtful short term returns, while their scientists preach another story.  It is a dysfunction that every responsible citizen and especially foresters need to urgently correct before we are obligated to send a flotilla of arks to Bangladesh, a country that lies almost entirely at sea level.

– Richard Bronson

Palm monoculture

Palm monoculture in Guatemala

Agrforestry parcel, IAF, Guatemala

 

California REDD

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On January 1st my homestate of California launched its long-awaited cap-and-trade program, establishing a limit on greenhouse-gas emissions.  These limits are slowly reduced over time, meaning that at some point the emissions should reach levels from two decades ago.  Its an exciting and important moment for carbon programs, like REDD+, not only because of the California factor (The US’s most populous state and the ninth biggest economy in the world) but because other states may follow suit, assuming of course that things pan out correctly.  “California is a big economy, and it is very diverse, like the U.S. as a whole,” says Mary Nichols, chairman of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which is overseeing the cap-and-trade system. “If it can work in California, it can work in the U.S.”

Assuming other jurisdictions will participate in offset generation, we could see an impact on conservation efforts and reforestation in Latin America.  There’s quite a bit of work ahead, with many actors, but so far there seems to be pointed-effort.  A recent article published in ‘Ecosystem Marketplace‘, discusses the California REDD program which seeks to bring international REDD+ credits to the state’s program:

Link to article