Scots tycoon links up with Bill Clinton in African carbon offset scheme

Published on Sunday 10 June 2007 00:12

FOR most of us, saving the planet usually means a weekly trip to the local bottle bank. But for Scotland's only billionaire, green living means reforesting swathes of Africa.

In his latest remarkable venture Sir Tom Hunter has teamed up with former US president Bill Clinton to plant up to 10 million trees across vast tracts of the continent in one of the most ambitious "carbon offsetting" schemes in the world.

Such schemes, now springing up across the globe, see big polluting firms and consumers paying the cost of their carbon emissions to fund environmentally friendly projects elsewhere.

As befits a man with a vast personal business estate, Hunter calculated he "owed" 500,000 in carbon emissions, a figure which included the private air flights he takes across the world.

That annual sum will now be used to plant millions of trees in two nations where he already funds development projects, Rwanda and Malawi.

The project will soon be open to firms and consumers across the Western world which want to offer their support.

Hunter's plan came after watching the docu-film An Inconvenient Truth, made by Clinton's former deputy, Al Gore. He decided on the back of it that something had to be done.

The Ayrshire-born philanthropist decided that a carbon-offset scheme would both boost the environment while further encouraging the two nations' quest for wealth. "This is an elegant means of assisting in delivering poverty alleviation, reforestation, export enhancement with the by-product of being a verifiable carbon offset," he said.

Clinton added: "This innovative programme in Rwanda is tackling three key issues: empowering farmers with a source of sustainable income, reforesting areas that have been deforested, and generating carbon offsets to address climate change. I'm delighted that the Clinton Foundation, the Hunter Foundation, and the Government of Rwanda are taking this step together with Rwandan farmers."

Hunter's cash will be used to plant fruit trees for local farmers, and also to build up new forests.

The entrepreneur intends to pay the farmers for three years until the fruit is ready, after which they will become self-sustaining.

Meanwhile, cash from offsetting firms and consumers will pay to invest further in the project.

Hunter said: "Let me stress one thing - the only people who will make a profit out of this will be Rwandan and Malawian farmers. With the exception of the design and verification of the scheme, every single penny will be invested in poverty stricken farmers in-country."

The biggest single forest expected to be created will be on the shores of the vast Lake Kivu on the border of Congo and Rwanda, an area similar in size to Loch Lomond. Hunter intends to reforest 30 metres up from the shore, in order to prevent further erosion.

Similarly huge forests are planned elsewhere in Rwanda.

Ewan Hunter, the chief executive of the Hunter Foundation, said: "In total, we are talking in excess of 10 million trees. This is not a trivial figure."

He added: "It was Tom's idea. He watched An Inconvenient Truth and he just said we need to do something about it. We had the idea that could we start something that would be supportive of what we were doing in Malawi and Rwanda. This is now one of the most synergistic things we have ever come up with."

Hunter's plan is just the latest bid to boost the world's environmental future by supporting the developing world. Sir Richard Attenborough recently backed a new scheme called Cool Earth in which people can buy an acre of rainforest for just 70, thereby ensuring its survival.

Last year, Environment Minister David Miliband even suggested a plan in which the Amazon rainforest would be turned into an international trust with its trees sold to individuals and groups.

Another multimillionaire, Swedish born Johan Eliasch - the current deputy treasurer of the Conservative party - earlier this year bought 400,000 acres in the Amazon rainforest for an estimated 8m. Hunter's new plan has already begun with the opening of nurseries in Rwanda

A spokesman for investment group Baugur, which is donating 1m a year to the project, said: "With an increasing need to reduce carbon emissions and halt the progress of climate change, more and more consumers of energy - businesses and individuals alike - are now searching for clean and sustainable energy sources and methods of production.

"In addition to the changes in lifestyle and business practices we can all make, carbon offsetting like this offers an appealing yet meaningful way to help manage climate change, and in this case make a real and tangible difference to the lives of producers and farmers in the region.

"It's a global win-win situation and we are very proud to support it."