Are you willing to pay for someone to plant trees to absorb the Carbon produced by you @ Euro 65/yr per tree??

Question

I'm @ Borneo. Huge parts of our island is cleared for timber; environ, flora & fauna degradation. I hv a 10 he. plot that was alinated 40 yrs ago. It was 1st Rubber. Later the old trees were re-planted with fruit trees. 8 yrs ago due to EL NINO occur, >90% of the 10 yr fruit trees were burn by forest fire. Now I have some $$ for re-planting. Seeking HONEST international opinions whether I should plant:
1. indigenous hardwood trees which take 100 yrs to mature
2. Oil Palm trees for quick $ gain
My conflicting principles are to revert the land to mother nature. ie environ protection & re-juvination or commercialise.
Oil palm will give me g'tee mthly income 18 mths after planting. Efforts in hardwood trees take 3 generations to realise & along the way, contribute to environ.
Q: If I would to sell the Carbon absorbed by my trees, as envisioned in the Kyoto protocol, for EURO 65 per tree per year, will any one be willing to pay for the CO2 you have expended. email: [e-mail]

Answer 1

Sometimes economics mean that our choices are limited. If you need the money that would be generated by oil palms in order to feed and clothe yourself then there's really no option but to plant oil palms.

If you have other sources of income and your needs are already catered for then any additional income is supplemental to what you need and you have the luxury of being able to make a choice.

If the latter applies then planting hardwoods is certainly going to benefit the environment more than oilk palms - particularly in the long run. It can also be considered as an investment for future generations of your family.

Perhaps a third option would be to strike a balance and plant some of each type of tree.

Oil palms by themselves aren't so bad, most of the problems arise when existing land and trees are cleared to make way for new plantations. If the land is already barren then there is no associated loss from the change of land use.

As for paying €65 ($90) per tree per year - this is a very excessive figure. There are many organisations that will plant a tree for someone for a one off payment of €10 to €50 ($14 to $70). If someone were to do their own tree planting on a large enough scale then costs can fall to as little as €0.20 ($0.14) per tree.

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EDIT: TO MR JELLO

This question has nothing to do with nuclear power plants, why would I provide an answer to a question that hasn't been asked.

Read my previous answers then you'll know my position on the building of nuclear power plants (I support the idea as being the lesser of two evils) and you'll also know that I've used my own money to plant 50,000 trees.

May I respectfully suggest you research the role of trees in the environment and in particular thier carbon sequestering capabilities. For purposes of brevity - the right tree in the right place can produce a net reduction of 40kg of CO2 per year from the atmosphere over it's lifetime (from seed to final degredation). There are many other benefits to tree planting -and it's something that anyone can do.

Answer 2

I definitely would not pay you 65 Euro per year per tree. But I would support a tax structure that did not charge a land tax for undeveloped land.

Nobody seems to realize that a forest isn't just trees. In Nova Scotia the Flying Squirrel is endangered. There is a complex relationship among the squirrel, the tree, fungi and insects. Without all the creatures in the chain, that ecosystem will eventually fail. It doesn't really matter what you plant, if you are going to use pesticides and create acreage which is only suitable to grow trees which were never indigenous at the cost of all the creatures which make up the plant / animal food chains, you never will return it to it's natural state.

Human design doesn't even come close to the complexity of natural design.

But if you can make 65E/yr/tree ... I'm giving up my job and going planting trees.

Answer 3

Without reading all of it YES, YES, YES.
If we paid for all the trees needed to absorb all the Carbon Dioxide we produce, and all the Carbond Dioxide produced while making all the things we buy or use, yes.
In fact, each item ought to cost enough to pay what it costs to make, including the trees needed to compensate for damage done.
And, pay for one more tree.
If we did that, real soon, we COULD avoid Global Warming but, as you can read here, we are not about to do that. We rather burn, right along with the rain forest.
Actually, some of us, those over 60 have nothing to worry about, we will be dead anyway. However, however, do I dare write this here, let's see, if you believe in a final judgement, remember "After You Understand, It Becomes a Moral Issue"

Answer 4

Go for the cash. Then you can take some of that money and buy solar panels and an air conditioner to counteract global warming in your home.

By the way, oil palms absorb co2. You could still sell carbon credits. Maybe slightly less the hardwood trees.

Answer 5

planting trees will do very little actually, despite popular beliefs, to assist in converting CO2, it happens in the ocean people. don't get me wrong, re-forestation is a good thing, it just isn't where most of the O2 comes from. be very careful before you invest your hard earned money into feel good schemes.

Answer 6

The amount of carbon sequested from planting trees is miniscule and those seeking carbon credits by planting them are being taken in by a scam.

Answer 7

i think that the unites states is the principal country that enviorment the world

pienso que estados unidos es el principal pais que contamina el planeta

camila gil 13 years argentina

Answer 8

Trevor - Why not find a good answer like building more nuclear power plants rather then supporting feel good "solutions" that do absolutly nothing to reduce greenhouse gasses.

Somehow I'll bet you support this idea, but not with your money, of course.

Answer 9

shouldnt the government or companies that cut them down in the first place being doing this at their own expense already?

Answer 10

Without eading all of it... yes.