CARBON CREDIT TRADING GAME CHANGER   

CARBON credit trading has provided a source of revenue and improved the livelihoods of many communities in Eastern Province, Community Resources Boards Association (CRBA) president George Tembo has said.

Speaking to The Scoop, Mr. Tembo noted that carbon credits trading had continued to provide a flow of income to local communities which had seen the reduction in hunger and poverty levels in the province.

“All parties involved have established a well-defined consultative sharing mechanism which ensures that all parties significantly benefit from carbon credits trading. The association intends to engage the government to see if it can come up with policies that will allow communities to participate directly in mining and fishing as it is happening with carbon credits trading,” he said.

Mr. Tembo encouraged other chiefdoms to be open minded and learn about how beneficial carbon credits trading can be to their communities so that it can be practiced in other provinces.

“We encourage more chiefdoms to start trading in carbon credits in order to increase their income. We tried to look around and see the way conservation has been happening in the country that we were centered at one sort of revenue generation which was basically hunting. We looked at the other alternative and we thought carbon credits trading is the most key business that the communities can benefit from if we were to generate more resources that would help to improve their livelihoods.

Therefore, it is high time we should avoid the dependence of only one resource and our role is to ensure that our communities benefit from all the resources. We will move into other resources like fisheries and mining to ensure that we influence the government to set up policies that will allow the communities to fully participate as it is happening with hunting and carbon credits trading currently,” he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Sandwe of the Nsenga speaking people of Lusangazi district in Eastern Province said carbon credits trading has brought about developments such as schools and water boreholes in his chiefdom.

“My Chiefdom was undeveloped and currently we have seen a difference from the time we went into agreement with the Community Resources Boards Association. A number of developments have taken place in terms of infrastructure, schools, clinics and water points.

However, carbon credits trading is a good initiative but we are not in support of the Government’s involvement in carbon credits trading because local communities will start benefiting less compared to the current benefits they are deriving from the project,” he said.