�Thanks to a collaborative agreement signed between the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Organization for Unity and Development of the Community Ipeti-Embera, the Institute in Panama will offset its estimated carbon emissions for the future three years.
The Traditional Directorship of the General Congress of Alto Bayano, officials from Panama's National Environmental Authority, representatives of the environmental organization ANCON, staff and students from Canada's McGill University and the signing organizations celebrated the agreement in Ipeti on Aug. 17, 2008.
In addition to development new energy-saving practices and an education program for its employees, the Institute will runner its carbon dioxide production by purchasing emission reduction credits from the Embera community.
The agreement aims at sequestering additional carbon dioxide over the next 25 years through plantations conventional with native tree species and avoiding the press release of carbon dioxide into the atm by conserving forested land. Proceeds from the carbon paper purchase will support the families directly participating in the execution and make a fund to benefit all biotic community members.
Catherine Potvin, McGill University professor, enquiry associate at the Smithsonian and adviser to Panama's National Environmental Authority, has worked closely with the Embera biotic community in Ipeti, seeking a way to simultaneously protect the forest, its biodiversity and carbon stock patch improving livelihoods and maintaining cultural integrity.
"This Smithsonian contribution to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions is a direct result of Catherine Potvin's foresight in adapting her studies of plant atomic number 6 uptake to Panama's cultural and economic reality and represents a very cocksure step in support of our basic research on the impact of spheric change on tropical forests and water availability and our Climate Partnership with HSBC, the World Wildlife Fund, Earthwatch and the Climate Group," said Eldredge Bermingham, director of the institute.
"I hope that our model for community-based carbon offset will show that the carbon market potty directly welfare local mass while portion Panama to remain an international leader in the global exertion to reduce emissions from deforestation below the United Nations' Framework Convention for Climate Change," said Potvin.
Omaira Casama - the former cacique and first adult female to hold that position, the highest authority in the General Congress - helped to craft this project over the past four age: "As the community replants deforested areas with aboriginal species, we replant traditions vital to the conservation of our way of life. This is a very positivist step toward confronting the ongoing devastation of natural resources and protecting the environment in the realm." She thanks the technical team and current cacique, Bolivar Jaripio.
"The Ipeti pilot project, if conducted in compliance with all of the regulations required by international carbon copy credit markets and local legislation, volition be our focus as we grow national standards and project future projects in the context of the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility pilot activities," said Eduardo Reyes, of Panama's Environmental Authority, ANAM. Panama has recently been chosen by the World Bank as one of 14 pilot countries to spearhead the reduction of emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation.
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution. The institute furthers the understanding of tropical nature and its importance to human public assistance, trains students to take research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and grandness of tropic ecosystems. For more information, visit http://www.stri.org/.
Additional background information:
In 2007, HSBC included the Smithsonian in its Climate Partnership, providing support for a major experiment to study the effects of reforestation in the Panama Canal catchment area and to develop a set of forest monitoring sites: the Global Earth Observatory system. The Climate Partnership encourages its Partners to turn carbon neutral.
An external audit of the institute's carbon paper emissions by the Partnership's Edinburgh Center for Carbon Management estimated that it produces about 4,000 tons of CO2-equivalent emissions per year based on data from 2004-2006. The Smithsonian is taking its first major step toward offsetting carbon emissions.
Source: Beth King
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
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