by Gerry T. Estrera
By planting more coconuts, the Philippines can help stave off the effects of climate change.
“Our coconut areas could be developed for income generating carbon sequestration projects and carbon credit market,” pointed out Dr. Severino S. Magat, extension department manager of the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA).
Carbon sequestration describes long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to either mitigate or defer global warming and avoid dangerous climate change. Carbon dioxide, in the form of gas, can be sequestered out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis. The carbon dioxide is converted into sugar by the plant or emitted back to the air through perspiration.
Carbon stored in plant parts other than the stem wood or trunk are generally decomposable biomass which eventually becomes a part of the soil organic matter (SOM) of which the more stable component is the 50 percent soil organic carbon (SOC).
In his paper presentation entitled, “Productive and Sustainable Coconut Farming Ecosystems as Potential Carbon Sinks in Climate Change Minimization: A Review and Advisory Notes,” Dr. Magat explained the important role of the coconut lands against the negative impacts of climate change.
In coconut, as in most tree crops, carbon is stored or sequestered both by the biomass and the soil of the ecosystem, indicating that the biomass and the soil are the main carbon sinks of atmospheric carbon dioxide. These “carbon sinks” could be regulated and managed to a great extent by following proper cropping practices, according to Dr. Magat.
A two-year study conducted by PCA showed the annual rate of carbon sequestration in local tall variety coconut crop is 4.78 tons carbon per hectare. That is equivalent to 17.54 tons of carbon dioxide per hectare, Dr. Magat claimed.
But it would be easier if the benefit of the coconut in climate change adaptation is laid out in cash terms through carbon trading. Assuming that an average of 5.1 tons carbon per hectare of stable biomass and 15 tons carbon per hectare from the sequestered SOC can be attained, the estimated cash benefits would amount to at least P14,170.50 per hectare per year or P 14.17 million per 1,000 hectares coconut land used in the climate-change mitigation.
The cash value could easily double if coconut lands are intercropped with fruit trees and other perennial crops, which are highly capable of carbon sequestration in their plant biomass and the soil.
Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which is an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate-Change, industrialized countries have committed to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and other green house gases or engage on emissions trading if they maintain or increase emissions of their gases.
In the Clean Development Mechanism of this protocol, industrialized countries can meet part of their target in reducing carbon dioxide emission to the 1990 levels over a five-year period (2008-2012) by purchasing emission reduction credits from developing countries like the Philippines in the form of planted forest, which is achievable in the country due to its vast tracts of open land for the establishments of plantations, Magat said.
The coconut tree meets the criteria of the UN Food and Agriculture as “forest.” The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has already included coconut as a reforestation crop through Administrative Order No. 2005-25 effective Nov. 17, 2005.
“We believe our farmers and entrepreneurs can create a niche in natural products whose primary value is their health quality. Coconut sap sugar is one of those products that has already taken off in the market and which still offers so much valuable growth potential,” said Dr. Nicomedes P. Eleazar, BAR director, said in a statement.
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