NEWS
much more sense as a route to capturing and sequestering carbon to meet the climate challenge . As
Susie Vetter explains :
“ Tree planting should enhance and diversify local livelihoods , avoid the transformation of tropical grasslands and savannahs , promote landscape heterogeneity and biodiversity , and distinguish residual carbon stocks from those derived from reforestation and afforestation .”
Pastoralists know a lot about highly dynamic rangeland environments .
As guardians of these rich , open ecosystems , excluding pastoralists and their animals in the name of carbon offsetting and forest rehabilitation , can be disastrous , both for people and for the environment .
So , rather than thinking you can offset your high-carbon lifestyle in a ‘ green ’ way by buying into a carbon offset tree planting scheme , think again .
It could do more damage than good .
Figure 4 : Cultures of livestock keeping and wildlife use have created a lived-in landscape .
25 Grassroots Vol 21 No 3 November 2021