ASTANA – SEFE Marketing & Trading international energy company signed an Emission Removal Purchase Agreement (ERPA) with Kazakhstan’s SAFC – agency to remove and reduce greenhouse gas emissions – on Nov. 18 to finance a forest planting initiative and issue carbon units over 30 years, reported the Prime Minister’s press service.
The project will establish a 1,500-hectare forest ecosystem in the Almaty Region. Photo credit: Alexander Buzurnyuk / Pexels. Click to see the map in full size. The map is designed by The Astana Times.
The project will establish a 1,500-hectare forest ecosystem in the Almaty Region, aiming to plant 3.3 million trees, including poplars, elms, and other species such as turanga, birch, and sea buckthorn.
Using water-saving technologies and intensive agricultural practices, the forest is expected to reduce annual carbon emissions by 26 tons per hectare, totaling 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide over 30 years. This is equivalent to 780 tons of carbon dioxide absorbed per hectare. The project will also promote agroforestry, ecotourism, and job creation.
The Atameken National Chamber of Entrepreneurs reported that the first 200,000 seedlings have already been planted. Low-productivity farmland and degraded pastures will be transformed into a forest ecosystem: forest nursery – forest plantations – forest farming – ecotourism. The project will help generate over one million tons of absorbed emissions and corresponding compensation payments.
Company representatives met with Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov after the agreement to discuss the pilot project’s progress. With all necessary procedures completed and the first offtake contract signed, the initiative opens the way for future investments in carbon farming and sustainable development in Kazakhstan.
