Cuba approves incentive payment for forest carbon removal

Cuba approved the payment for environmental services for the removal of sustainable forest carbon, a financial solution, the first of its kind in the country, which allows supporting environmental policies.
 
The resolution published in the Official Gazette of the Republic, is ‘an incentive that can be granted to natural or legal persons in charge of the administration of an area of the forest that, as a result of the sustainable management of forests, removes carbon from the atmosphere.’

According to this provision, number 28 of 2024 of the Ministry of Agriculture, ‘carbon retention is the storage of carbon in the biomass of living trees;’ therefore, the persons in charge of forest patrimony can request the payment of the environmental service for the removal of forest carbon.

The Agroforestry Research Institute (INAF) will be the institution in charge of the measurements linked to the fulfillment of the requirements to obtain the incentive.

The norm is a precedent for Cuba’s participation in the market of carbon bonds, a worldwide financing mechanism that allows the promotion of projects in favor of the care of the planet,’ according to a communiqué from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) office in Cuba.

The United Nations agency has promoted in Cuba the adoption of different innovative financial mechanisms that contribute to mitigate the financing gaps to achieve the country’s sustainable development objectives, such as those linked to sustainable land management and the preservation of biodiversity,’ the text added.

This solution has been defined and promoted by the Biofin initiative, a global collaborative alliance administered by the United Nations Development Program to have the countries implement the methodology that conceives the design of a resource mobilization strategy for the financing of biodiversity.

It is also accompanied by Ecovalor, an international cooperation project that seeks to generate environmental benefits by identifying and implementing economic and financial mechanisms that take into account ecosystem services and their economic implications.