Biodiversity & Social Carbon: Sustainable Devlopment and the Carbon Market

In this timely book, the authors explain the thinking behind the Social Carbon methodology; how it was developed; how it has been applied to a variety of projects; and how it has proven to be a dynamic and flexible tool that can help combat the twin challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. Since the birth of the carbon market, there have been persistent demands that projects receiving carbon credits should not only curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but also make a contribution to the sustainable development of the host community. The Social Carbon methodology was first developed as a tool to monitor the qualitative and quantitative sustainable development benefits of a carbon sequestration project in Brazil. Given the threats facing the abundant flora and fauna in that region, biodiversity conservation was one of the key criteria in assessing the project s sustainability benefits. As awareness of biodiversity loss has grown rapidly in recent years, this issue has become a major concern to many buyers of carbon credits.