By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Mar.23: The government is set to sign a deal on carbon reduction programmes (CRP) under the Emissions and Reduction Payment Agreement (ERPA), officials said.
The deal will be finalised in June 2020 with the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. Nepal has claimed up to 45 million dollars by 2025.
The programme will help to further reduce deforestation and forest degradation in Nepal.
According to Dr. Maheshwor Dhakal, chief at the climate change division of the Ministry of Forest and Environment (MoFE), carbon trade will benefit the country in different ways.
“We can protect greenery, avoid landslides, deforestation and degradation while earning money from the trade, Dhakal said.”
At least seven key activities will be conducted under the CRP that include improvements in community-based forest management, transfer of national forests to communities and collaborative forest user groups and promotion of private-sector forestry through improved access to finances and inputs.
CRP focuses on providing alternative energy with biogas plants and improved cooking stoves along with pro-poor leasehold forestry, integrated land use planning and protected area management.
Though carbon trade has a lengthy process to get a small amount of money, there are side benefits and additional profits coming from forest conservation. Carbon storage is one of many advantages, Dhakal said.
The government has been piloting afforestation projects in 13 districts of the Terai region on 2.4 million hectors of land.
This will be the first time Nepal is going for the forest based carbon trade at a large scale. In the past, Nepal received money for using clean energy like biogas and micro hydropower projects.
Sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks is governed by a scheme called REDD Plus. It has different phases like strategy development, implementation and payment. Nepal is currently in the implementation phase, said Dr. Buddhi Sagar Poudyal, Chief at the REDD Plus Implementation Centre of MoFE.
Emission Reduction Plan Documentation (ERPD) was approved in 2018 and has been implemented in 13 Terai districts. The ERPA will help the government, communities, and stakeholders in reducing deforestation and forest degradation, said Dr. Dhakal.
Carbon trade is a performance-based payment, said Information Officer at REDD Plus Pashupatinath Koirala. “We will get the money from carbon trade only if we are able to increase carbon storage,” he said.
According to government data, Nepal’s forests store more than 500 million tonnes of carbon as a whole.
Nepal can benefit a lot from the carbon trade. It can help in water conservation, livelihood and reducing rain induced natural disasters.