Lishui, Zhejiang: The key to common prosperity hidden in the forest carbon sink

How can the vast forest sea become a "carbon sink", increasing greenery and generating gold? For Lishui City, Zhejiang Province,"selling carbon" and "selling air" are no longer new.

As early as 12 years ago, Gaoping Township, Suichang County, Lishui City held an "air auction" to organize leisure and health tourists in three villages for one year, and sold it at a high price of 1.74 million yuan. At the beginning of 2024, eight township strong village companies and four state-owned forest farms in Suichang County also received forestry carbon sink transaction prices issued by Lishui City Forestry Construction and Development Co., Ltd., totaling more than 307,000 yuan.

The change in value brought about by "turning carbon into gold" reflects the power of Lishui's "carbon" cable and reflects the effect of Lishui's carbon sink reform-forest carbon sinks turn "forest votes" into "carbon votes" and ultimately realize them in the hands of village collectives or villagers.

Carbon sink refers to the process, activity or mechanism that absorbs carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through measures such as afforestation and vegetation restoration, thereby reducing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Looking at Lishui, Zhejiang Province from this perspective, it has a forest area of 20.76 million acres and a forest coverage rate of 81.7%, ranking first in the province. Lishui City also took the lead in establishing the first forest carbon sink management bureau in the country and developing and launching the province's only Zhejiang (Lishui) ecological product trading platform. In the past three years, Lishui's forest vegetation carbon reserves have increased by 8%, totaling 62 million tons. Lishui ranks first in the province in terms of carbon sink capacity.

The forests are more and greener, transforming green waters and green mountains into mountains of gold and silver. How to "realize" is the key link.

"The scale of tea gardens has expanded, tea-making equipment has been upgraded, and the quantity and quality of tea have increased year by year." In Guanpuyang Village, Longquan City, villager Li Hanqing pointed to his tea garden and said with joy,"The natural ecology is good, and the tea garden has also been well developed. A few years ago, I used the 'carbon sink certificate' of 80 acres of mountain forest to get living money."

The family farm run by Li Hanqing mainly grows tea. In 2021, the expansion of tea garden planting will require additional capital turnover. Just when Li Hanqing was in trouble, Longquan City launched the "Forestry Carbon Carbon Loan" green credit product. Through carbon sink conversion and other means, Li Hanqing obtained a pledge loan of 200,000 yuan to contract the maintenance of 80 acres of forest land and forest. This is also the country's first forestry carbon sink "future income rights + insurance policy".

In the same year, Guanpuyang Village's carbon sink forest management carbon sink inclusive project was promoted in an all-round way, and three "carbon sink transactions" were reached, involving forestry carbon sink emission reductions of 582.32 tons, creating 58,000 yuan in Guanpuyang Village. Carbon sink income set a new high for Lishui City's carbon sink transaction amount at that time.

In the exploration and practice of carbon inclusive market transactions, Lishui City Ecological Environment Bureau took the lead in issuing the province's first local carbon sink methodology-"Zhejiang Province Forest Management Carbon Inclusive Methodology (Trial)", the country's first local standard to standardize the carbon emission reduction calculation methods for bamboo material substitution projects such as replacing plastic with bamboo materials, namely,"Project-Based Carbon Emission Reduction Accounting Guidelines Bamboo Material Replacement", and also rely on "carbon sink + Finance", innovatively launch green financial products such as carbon sink loans and carbon sink insurance.

Zhejiang Jiahe Bamboo Industry Technology Co., Ltd. is a pilot enterprise that uses bamboo instead of plastic carbon emission reduction accounting standards. "The company consumes 105,000 tons of bamboo every year. After the accounting standards are released, the carbon emission reductions in all aspects of the company's production will likely bring considerable carbon trading revenue to the company." He Shengliang, chief engineer of the company, said.

Taking this company's project as an example, Zhang Feng, an engineer at the Emissions Trading Center of the Lishui City Ecological Environment Bureau, calculated for the reporter: using bamboo materials instead of plastic to produce floors can reduce the use of 13,400 tons of plastic every year, and the carbon emission reduction in each key link is 37,000 tons of carbon dioxide. Based on the calculation of Zhejiang's carbon inclusive transaction price of 80 yuan-100 yuan/ton, in theory, the company's carbon inclusive transaction revenue can reach up to 3.7 million yuan.

In the account of Qiangcun Company in Dajun Township, Jingning She Autonomous County, the reporter can see records of remittances to purchase carbon dioxide forest management carbon sinks: County Cultural Tourism Development Group Co., Ltd. purchased 300 tons, equivalent to a gain of 30,000 yuan; Zhejiang Jiaxing State-owned Capital Investment and Operation Co., Ltd. purchased 1000 tons, equivalent to a gain of 100,000 yuan...

"Through the city's online ecological product trading platform, we will complete 6 forest management carbon sink inclusive transactions in 2023, with operating income reaching 247,600 yuan." The relevant person in charge of Dajun Township told reporters,"This is also one of the important ways for villagers to increase their income and achieve common prosperity."

Dajun Township's practice is the epitome of Lishui's continuous release of carbon sink dividends. Taking the "Zhejiang Forest Carbon Sink" regional transaction as an example, Lishui has carried out various types of ecological resources and ecological products trading. Since its operation for more than a year, a total of 684 transactions have been completed, with a transaction value of 5.623 billion yuan, driving the collective income of 1303 villages in the city to increase by 700 million yuan.

The city is in the mountains, and the mountains are in the city. In Lishui, from individuals 'low-carbon and green life to corporate emission reduction production and operation, transforming the value of carbon sinks into economic value and transforming the "green content" of carbon sinks into "gold content" has become Lishui's continuous exploration of carbon sinks. A new way to benefit the people and get rich together.