Benchmarks

The Climate Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) -- an international environment and business coalition -- has developed standards to evaluate the impact of land-based climate change mitigation projects on the atmosphere, communities and biodiversity. The move is aimed at using integrated goals to address multiple problems.

"The standards will also ensure that land management efforts do not narrowly address one important problem while ignoring or exacerbating others," said John O'Niles, CCBA's project manager.The draft standards will now be opened up for review and suggestions. Following this, revised standards will be developed and tested on the ground. These would be revised again and released in their final form by the end of the year.