Tanzania has emerged as a beacon of success in conservation efforts, with notable strides attributed to its embrace of the carbon trade opportunity. Carbon trade agreements, which enable the sale of carbon credits to mitigate total emissions, have gained traction globally. Stemming from the cap and trade model that effectively curbed sulfur pollution in the 1990s, carbon trading offers a promising avenue for environmental stewardship.
Manyara region, conservation leaders have adopted a hands-on approach, engaging local villagers to safeguard wildlife and natural resources. Mr. Faraja Ngerageza, the Manyara Regional Assistant Administrative Secretary, emphasized the importance of grassroots involvement for effective conservation outcomes. Addressing journalists from the Journalists Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET), Mr. Ngerageza highlighted the region’s success, underscoring the significance of a participatory approach. By actively involving communities, conservation efforts not only thrive but also provide sustainable livelihood opportunities, ensuring a symbiotic relationship between environmental preservation and local prosperity.
The implementation is done under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Tuhifadhi Maliasili Project.
Carbon trade is the buying and selling of credits that permit a company or other entity to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. The carbon credits and the carbon trade are authorized by governments with the goal of gradually reducing overall carbon emissions and mitigating their contribution to climate change.
Carbon trading is also referred to as carbon emissions trading. The measures are aimed at reducing the effects of global warming but their effectiveness remains a matter of debate.
Rules for a global carbon market were established at the Glasgow COP26 climate change conference in November 2021, enacting an agreement first laid out at the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
-Carbon trading is based on the cap-and-trade regulations that successfully reduced sulfur pollution during the 1990s. This regulation introduced market-based incentives to reduce pollution: rather than mandating specific measures, the policy rewarded companies that cut their emissions and imposed financial costs on those that could not.
The idea of applying a cap-and-trade solution to carbon emissions originated with the Kyoto Protocol, a United Nations treaty to mitigate climate change that took effect in 2005. At the time, the measure devised was intended to reduce overall carbon dioxide emissions to roughly 5% below 1990 levels by 2012. The Kyoto Protocol achieved mixed results, and an extension to its terms has not yet been ratified.
