It’s a hot and humid afternoon in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Our contact at Burapha Agro-Forestry welcomes us to an empty boardroom full of maps. The meeting goes smoothly, though we can’t help noticing that our contact is the only employee in office. “Why is it empty?” we wonder. Before we get the answer, we receive the striking news that Burapha Agro-Forestry – one of the first Lao private sector afforestation projects with credits approved through Verra – has gone out of business. With COP-28 delivering a reality check over the urgent need to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030 to achieve global emissions reduction targets, international attention has been drawn to financing nature-based solutions, such as forest carbon projects, in developing countries. This is especially true in Laos, which has lost approximately 4.37 million hectares of tree cover since 2001. However, forest carbon projects haven’t had a good track record of efficacy; in some cases, projects collapse before fully delivering their intended benefits. Burapha Agro-Forestry is the latest example. So, what’s happening? Donor-designed forest carbon projects and private sector companies like Burapha Agro-Forestry are facing insurmountable challenges from an age-old problem: land tenure insecurity. And, ultimately, the pursuit of sustainable development in Laos through carbon financing is struggling from a lack of contextual understanding amongst investors on just how tightly interwoven tenure security is with the implementation of forest carbon projects. Laos suffers deforestation from an array of activities, including rubber cultivation shown here, but some say…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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