By Olivia Miwil - August 23, 2023 @ 7:57pm
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah state government has been urged to reveal designated areas included as part of the initial 600,000 hectares of the Nature Conservation Agreement (NCA).
The World Wide Fund for Nature Malaysia (WWF-Malaysia) Sabah Conservation head Dr Robecca Jumin said carbon offset projects present a great opportunity to the state, but transparency has to come first.
"We urge the state government to share with the people on the designated areas for the NCA and how additionally can be demonstrated.
"Clear facts on the project need to be laid on the table to avoid confusion. For a start, the people need to know exactly what areas are designated in the NCA.
"We also strongly urge the government to invite Hoch Standard to come to Sabah and explain this project to the public.
"After all, for a project of this scale, covering 100 years with option to renew for another 100 years, it is only right that the company managing it comes to the fore and holds itself accountable to the people of Sabah," she said in a statement.
During a recent interview on the 'Sabah Way Forward' platform with a local radio station, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan had mentioned Trusmadi would be included into the NCA.
She said this raised further question as there are two forest reserves in Trusmadi; the Nuluhon Trusmadi Class I Forest Reserve and the Trusmadi Class II Forest Reserve.
A Class I forest reserve is a protection forest, where exploitative activities are strictly prohibited. A Class II forest reserve is a commercial forest allocated for harvesting to supply timber and other forest produce.
Robecca added that under normal circumstances, Class I forest reserve being a protection forest was not eligible for carbon offset because of the concept of additionality.
Additionality is a fundamental principle within any carbon offset projects.
In carbon offset projects, carbon credits are required to be additional - in that it represents emission reductions or removals that would not have otherwise occurred without the added incentive from the carbon market.
"In principle, carbon offset projects like the NCA must satisfy the criterion that they offer opportunities for its designated areas to contribute to emission reduction that would not already happen in the absence of the project.
"To put it simply, only forests that are meant for exploitation - via logging, agriculture development, settlements, and so on - can claim additionality by means of preventing such activities that would have been otherwise inevitable.
"Another criterion is the concept of additionality. Not all categories of protected forest are eligible for carbon offset."
As for Jeffrey's statement that the NCA will be measured against international standards such as the Verified Carbon Standards (VCS) which is for the greenhouse gas crediting programme and the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) which is an independent governance body for the voluntary carbon market.
"Being compliant with the SDG is a necessary part of a VCS project.
"However, presently, we do not see how compliance with the SDGs an additionality in the current VCS standard can be. How would this be measured, and which methodology?
"The VCS programme requires that all its projects adhere to various principles including that it must be additional, real and measurable, conservative, permanent, independently verified, uniquely numbered and transparently listed."
Meanwhile, earlier during the launching of the Heart of Borneo International Conference, state Attorney-General Datuk Nor Asiah Mohd Yusof had said that the negotiations for NCA were still ongoing which contradict to Jeffrey's persistence in claiming the deal would proceed ahead.
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