JK Paper improving rural livelihoods

Bhubaneswar: J K Paper Ltd and Veda Climate Change Solutions Ltd (VCCSL), in association with World Bank Bio-Carbon Fund (BioCF), organised a function at Visakhapatnam on Monday for distribution of cheques to farmers towards revenue obtained from sale of carbon credits. A release said this was the second event organised for the same, the first was held at Jaykaypur, Rayagada.

Farmers were presented cheques by Biswajeet Dwivedi, the vice-president (commercial), JKPL, Dr M Satyanarayana, president, VCCSL, Dr Nandani Salaria, director, Visakhapatnam Zoo, Dr A J Rao, member, Environment Appraisal Committee for Industry, Union Ministry of Environment, Dr CBS Dutta, ex-senior scientist, ISRO & NRSA. Around 900 farmers of AP will be receiving amounts.

Having successfully implemented the first-of-its-kind project in South Asia through the PPP model, another project on similar lines was also launched at the event - "Enhancing rural livelihoods through carbon sequestration by adopting agro-forestry practices," under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) to bring over 30,000 under agro forestry over the next five years in AP, Odisha and Telangana.

This will benefit around 20,000 farmers by linking them to the global carbon markets. A workshop was also organised on the occasion to explore opportunities for developing projects integrating climate change mitigation and poverty alleviation strategies to provide local as well as global benefits sustainably.

Dr Satyanarayana chaired the technical sessions which was moderated by Sai Kishore of VCCSL. The participants were Anant Shankar, DFOfficer, Visakhapatnam, B Janaki Rao, regional coordinator, AP State Biodiversity Board, Chaitanya Sure (climate partner, Munich), Dr Dutta, B P Ratho, GM JKPL, Manali Bhaduri (Emergent Ventures India Pvt. Ltd) and G Prasad Babu (CEO, Geo Climate Risk Solutions).

The meeting was well attended by officials of the Forest department, NGOs like LAYA, BREDS, TCDS, corporates, international organisations, scientific institutions like NRSC, GCRS, experts in climate change mitigation.