Harvesting Carbon Sequestration Through Land-Use Change : A Way Out of Rural Poverty?

The key principle underlying the agreements that came out of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) meeting held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 was the requirement to address both development and environmental concerns in dealing with the pressing problems of environmental degradation facing the world. The agreements reached in Rio de Janeiro led to the establishment of a new international environmental governance system in the form of several multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in those Countries Experiencing Serious Drought and/or Desertification, particularly in Africa (UNCCD). Under these and other MEAs, a range of mechanisms to promote the generation of environmental goods and services together with economic development has been proposed and in some cases implemented