Conservation Carbon Company: making a sustainable difference through Analog Forestry carbon trading.
Conservation Carbon Company announced the formal launch of its carbon footprint consultancy and sustainable carbon credits, which are based on the principles of Analog Forestry.


COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, October 29, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Conservation Carbon Company, a firm set up to offer 'carbon footprint consultancy and an ecologically responsible alternative to current carbon offset trading', announced the formal launch of its first vintage of voluntary carbon credits. Company CEO Subramaniam Eassuwaren invited 'concerned companies and individuals who wish to obtain carbon offsets that are more than mere licences to pollute' to consider investing in the company's 'sustainable carbon credits'.

The firm specialises in helping companies calculate their impact on the environment including their carbon and water footprints. After helping them monitor their footprints, they then offer the companies ecologically sound credits to offset what they cannot reduce.
They are now working with several boutique eco hotels to reduce their carbon footprints while also advising individuals and organisations on how to manage their lands in an environmentally sound manner.

Conservation Carbon Company (CCC) carbon credits are earned through a special process known as Analog Forestry, which helps preserve biodiversity and benefits local communities even as it sequesters carbon through the planting of trees. Analog Forestry is the brainchild of Dr. Ranil Senanayake, a famous biologist, conservationist and champion of the world's rainforests, who is celebrated for the discovery of several new plant and animal species and who founded the International Analog Forestry Network in 1996. Dr. Senanayake serves in a senior capacity on the board of CCC.

Making biodiversity profitable
Unlike traditional carbon-capture projects, which tend to be monocultural and industrial in
nature, Analog Forestry preserves natural habitats and biodiversity by making them
economically useful to local communities. The system is financed by trading carbon credits
earned by planting trees and other forest vegetation to promote and extend these habitats.
'Thriving, ecologically self-sustaining forests are one of the best ways of keeping Earth - and ourselves - healthy,' says Dr. Senanayake. 'Analog forestry offers, in my opinion, the best way forward. It's a complex setup, involving businesses in the West, traditional communities in poor countries and a lot of ecological and forestry expertise. These factors interact to the benefit of all.

Everybody profits.'
In each of its Analog Forestry projects, CCC seeks to extend and replicate existing forest coverage over a selected region, picking a threatened ecosystem and building on it. The company's experts, in collaboration with Rainforest Rescue International, choose what trees to plant, as well as what additional flora and fauna to introduce and cultivate, based on what is local to the area plus what can be added to enhance biodiversity and sustainability. Local communities also play an integral role in each project, which CCC encourages by picking trees and other plants that produce foods, medicines and other products that community members can use or sell.

Projects under way
The Sri Lanka-based company, which is part of the Analog Forestry Network founded by Dr.Senanayake, has already begun work on its first project, at Hiniduma near the country's shrinking first-growth rainforest zones. Carbon credits produced by projects like Hiniduma are independently monitored and validated. At present, this function is performed by Forest Garden Product Inspection & Certification, the
first accredited certification authority under the International Analog Forestry Network (IAFN). The Analog Forestry-based carbon credits offered by CCC are voluntary rather than mandatory, but offer qualitative and quantitative benefits well beyond those packaged in a typical Kyoto- or EU-based credit scheme. Purchasers of credits are offered the further assurance of involvement in the process themselves, by becoming partners in monitoring and evaluation through membership in IAFN. Carbon stocks are monitored quarterly for the first three years and twice yearly for the remaining period of investment. Annual progress reports are issued to clients based
on the monitors' findings. 'Accountability is key to all our operations,' says Mr. Subramaniam.

Endorsement by international experts
Mr. Subramaniam also notes with pride that CCC's activities have won praise and endorsement from a number of prominent environmentalists and ecologists. Mohan Munesinghe, an internationally celebrated physicist and climatologist who won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize together with his colleagues on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has
called it 'a brave and imaginative way of leveraging Kyoto to obtain real, sustainable environmental benefits.' A number of other ecologists and environmentalists have also offered plaudits.
But, notes Mr. Subramaniam, CCC's efforts have a hardheaded business side to them as well. 'To ethically committed companies around the world, we're saying: if you or your organization are looking to purchase carbon offsets, please take a close look at us. What we offer is a triply- integrated solution to the problems of climate change, habitat loss and rural poverty. Partner with us, and help make a real difference.'

More information
* Conservation Carbon Company website http://www.conservecarbon.org

* Details on IAFN activities and membership can be found analogforestrynetwork.org.

* More information about FGP-IC is available at www.forestgardencertification.com.

* Information about RRI can be found at www.rainforestrescueinternational.org



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Press Release Contact Information:

Subra Eswaran
Conservation Carbon Company
Director
104/11 Grandpass Road
Colombo, WP
Sri Lanka 0014
Voice: +94777304588
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