Reconciling Environment and Development in the Clean Development Mechanism John Kerr Chris Foley Kimberly Chung Rohit Jindal ABSTRACT. Providing a mechanism for financial transfers from the North to the South, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) aims to fund afforestation projects resulting in both reduced atmospheric carbon dioxide and sustainable development. One attractive feature of the CDM is that unlike other emerging carbon trading schemes it offers a means to promote sustainable development, which in a poor country must include providing poor people with income-earning opportunities. In practice however, the CDM projects may fail to address four issues key to this possibility: ownership, price, transaction costs, and use rights. The fail- ure to address these issues ultimately could lead the CDM to benefit elite landowners at the expense of the poor. However, recognition of this oversight provides opportunities to work with poor communities world- wide to facilitate the collective action required to make the CDM work for them. Such a focus holds the key to ensuring that the CDM achieves the twin objectives of environmental conservation and sustainable de- velopment. doi:10.1300/J091v23n01_01 [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail ad- dress: <docdelivery@haworthpress.com> Website: <http://www.HaworthPress. com>  2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.] John Kerr and Kimberly Chung are Assistant Professors, and Rohit Jindal is PhD Student, Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824 USA. Chris Foley is Administrator, James Madison College, Michigan State University. Address correspondence to: John Kerr, Department of CARRS, 325 Natural Re- sources, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48823 USA. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, Vol. 23(1) 2006 Available online at http://jsf.haworthpress.com  2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1300/J091v23n01_01 1