Reasons for Wild Hope - Voluntary Carbon Market Updates from May 2024
Welcome to Wildlife Works’ monthly Newsletter, “Reasons for Wild Hope."
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WILDLIFE WORKS REDD+ PROJECTS
Invest in Community-Led Forest Conservation
Our REDD+ Projects
Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project, D.R.C
Covering nearly 300,000 hectares of tropical rainforest and one of the most important wetlands in Africa, the Mai Ndombe REDD+ project partners with over 50,000 local community members to stop deforestation and protect endangered species by co-creating new economic opportunities.
Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project, Kenya
A critical wildlife corridor between Tsavo East and West National Parks, this project protects over 200,000 hectares of wildlife habitat by partnering with over 100,000 community members to make advancements in health, education, clean water, economic opportunities, and direct job creation.
Horizon Projects: Amazon Ecoregion Colombia
In the department of Vaupés, we are partnering closely with Indigenous communities to develop two REDD+ projects, which will conserve the region's rich biodiversity by improving the wellbeing of thousands of families.
WHERE WE WORK
REDUCING EMISSIONS FROM DEFORESTATION AND FOREST DEGRADATION
REDD+ BEST PRACTICES
Wildlife Works has co-created a set of best practices for implementing REDD+ projects, in collaboration with the Nature Conservancy, a group of best-in-class project practitioners and members of civil society.
View the full guidance framework here, or read the seven key recommendations distilled from the guidance framework to ensure equitable REDD+ projects.
REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) is a program established by the United Nations to incentivize activities that lower emissions caused by deforestation and forest degradation. Forests play a vital role in stopping climate change due to the substantial amounts of carbon they release when destroyed or degraded. By curbing deforestation and forest degradation, we can reduce these emissions and maintain healthy ecosystems.
In the early 2000s, it became evident to global economists that without economic alternatives to deforestation, developing countries in the Global South would exhaust their natural resources in their efforts to match the economic progress of the Global North. To address this, the United Nations devised the REDD+ framework, which aims to create a “win-win” scenario where the world’s forests and biodiversity are preserved, and developing nations receive financial compensation.
At Wildlife Works, we have embraced the REDD+ approach by compensating forest communities for their essential role in conserving our planet’s forests. Before REDD+, these communities received little to no remuneration for their efforts in managing the world’s ecosystems, despite the immense benefits these forests provide to the global economy through ecosystem services.
Compensating forest communities for their indispensable work is a matter of environmental justice.
Our commitment to a community-centered methodology will continue to be our guiding principle as we pursue additional market opportunities to safeguard the world's precious biodiversity.
REDD+ is designed to combat deforestation by providing financial incentives for preserving forests. Forests are vital for climate regulation, as they release significant amounts of carbon when destroyed. By preventing deforestation and degradation, REDD+ helps maintain carbon storage and ecosystem health.
Deforestation is driven by market forces, and market-based solutions like REDD+ can address this issue at scale. REDD+ assigns a financial value to standing forests through the creation of carbon credits. One carbon credit equals one metric ton of carbon dioxide, roughly the amount absorbed by 40 tropical rainforest trees annually. Our REDD+ projects are rigorously monitored and verified by third-party auditors to ensure they adhere to international standards. These standards issue Verified Emissions Reductions (VERs) that companies can purchase to offset their carbon footprint.
In the early 2000s, economists recognized that without economic alternatives to deforestation, developing countries would deplete their natural resources to match the economic progress of developed nations. The United Nations developed the REDD+ framework to offer these alternatives, creating a "win-win" situation: preserving forests and biodiversity while providing financial compensation to developing countries.
At Wildlife Works, we implement REDD+ to pay financially reward forest communities for their critical role in protecting forests. Before REDD+, these communities received little to no compensation for their stewardship of global ecosystems, despite the immense benefits forests provide through ecosystem services. Compensating these communities for their essential work is a form of environmental justice.
As defined by the United Nations, Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) is a distinct right that belongs to indigenous peoples, acknowledged in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). This right empowers indigenous communities to approve or reject any project that may impact them or their lands. They retain the authority to revoke their consent at any time. Additionally, FPIC grants them the ability to negotiate terms under which the project will be planned, executed, monitored, and assessed. This right is also integral to the universal right to self-determination.
The baseline represents an estimate of the greenhouse gas emissions that would have taken place if the REDD+ project had not been initiated. This calculation is crucial as it determines the number of carbon credits that can be issued from an avoided deforestation project, determining the financial viability of the project and conservation success in providing economic alternatives to extractive practices for local communities and Global South host countries.
Currently, there are various approaches for calculating baselines, including the use of reference areas, synthetic controls, and risk-based maps with baseline allocations.
Additionality refers to proving the emission reductions would not have happened without the incentive of carbon credits. The emissions reductions achieved by protecting a forest need to be “additional” to what would have happened if one of our REDD+ projects had not been implemented.
Leakage refers to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions outside the boundaries of a project that can be linked back to the project itself. This phenomenon occurs when deforestation activities are simply relocated to another area after one area is protected, thereby offsetting the positive impact of the original protection effort. A common example of leakage is when a logging company is prevented from cutting down trees in one forest, only to move its operations to a nearby forest.
Two primary types of leakage are widely recognized: activity-shifting and market leakage. Activity-shifting leakage occurs locally when the deforestation agents move their activities to areas outside the project boundary due to the REDD+ project and continue their deforestation or degradation there. Market leakage happens on a national scale when the REDD+ project significantly reduces the production of a commodity, leading to increased production elsewhere in the country to meet the demand, thus offsetting the original emission reductions.
Emission reductions need to deliver long-term mitigation benefits. Storing atmospheric carbon in trees carries inherent risks, especially with the increasing frequency of forest fires due to climate change. We address these risks by implementing rigorous risk management plans to mitigate the impact of such devastating events as forest fires. Furthermore, we set aside a portion of carbon credits generated by our projects in a "buffer pool" rather than selling them. If a "reversal" occurs, buffer credits can be canceled from this pool, thereby ensuring the integrity of the previously issued credits.
Wildlife Works has implemented REDD+ to pay forest communities for their essential service of protecting our planet’s forests.
We authored the first methodology for avoided ecosystem conversion that allowed Kasigau Corridor REDD+ to be the first verified REDD+ project in the VCM and charted a path for other developers to increase the use of this mechanism to protect forests. We continue to develop new technologies for REDD+ monitoring, reporting and verification
Land tenure plays a critical role in the success of REDD+ projects. Secure land tenure ensures that the benefits of these projects reach the rightful landowners and local communities, promoting economic growth and environmental sustainability. Clear property rights are essential to mitigate risks and maximize the positive impact of REDD+ initiatives.
Clear property rights to land (and carbon) are a prerequisite for successful REDD+ projects because land tenure rules define who may access and use the land in and around project areas. Clarity of land ownership also facilitates the creation of revenue-sharing agreements that benefit local communities. Where carbon rights are tied directly to land tenure, landholders can be compensated in direct proportion to the amount of greenhouse gases sequestered on their property.
For these reasons, when REDD+ project developers explore potential project sites it can be a catalyst for the clarification and participatory mapping of property rights and boundaries.
Our Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) process is consistent with the Cancun safeguards for REDD+ projects defined by the UNFCCC, which "constitute general principles that not only help ensure that REDD+ policies and measures do not cause harm to people and the environment, but also that they have positive effects and enhance social and environmental benefits."
Wildlife Works considers FPIC to be a continuous process, and it is critical to each phase of our projects.Some key features of our FPIC process include:
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We conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the risks to, and potential (negative) impacts on, various stakeholders and proposed mitigation plans.
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We provide communities with complete information on the purpose, nature, scale and duration of the project activities
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This includes information on the planned stakeholder engagement process (e.g., times and venues of public consultation meetings), grievance-registering and management procedures, and opportunities and means by which they can participate.
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We conduct thorough FPIC during the feasibility phase, before any contracts are signed to establish the project. Our FPIC process includes conducting extensive community outreach and sensitization to community members, in a user-friendly and culturally fitting manner, free of manipulation, interference, coercion and intimidation. If the community partners agree to start the project, FPIC continues throughout the entire life cycle of the project.
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We implement continuous and meaningful consultation with all project stakeholders, including marginalized groups within the local community.
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We use an effective and culturally appropriate procedure for which people can provide feedback and complaints.
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We provide communities with timely disclosure of appropriate information.
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Community governance is a cornerstone of successful REDD+ projects. Wildlife Works puts involves local communities at the helm in decision-making processes to achieve better outcomes for both the environment and the people. Our approach fosters local ownership and empowers communities to take an active role in forest conservation and climate resilience efforts. Read about the innovative governance structure of the Locational Carbon Committees at the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project..
Jurisdictional REDD ensures that REDD+ initiatives are integrated across different governance levels, promoting coherence and scalability. Nesting projects into jurisdictional programs can effectively channel finance to the forest areas that are most in danger within a jurisdiction. This facilitates economically efficient protection of standing forests, and pays communities that achieve conservation in the most difficult circumstances. Nested baselines are also well-suited to scaling the REDD+ market, as they create consistency in baseline accounting across a jurisdiction.
Finally, using nested baselines also makes it possible to align REDD+ activities with GHG inventory data and the host country’s Paris Agreement climate goals.7
Read this explainer on jurisdictional and project baselines.
REDD+ FAQ
LATEST NEWS
Our REDD+ Projects
When implemented to the highest standards, REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) projects center Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities’ (IPLCs’) efforts to preserve their forests by investing in their economic development. Sustainably safeguarding carbon-rich landscapes requires conservation to take a rights-based approach.
High integrity REDD+ projects can also support host countries in realizing their climate goals by creating positive social and biodiversity impacts. that. The benefit of REDD+ projects must be felt on the ground by the people who live in the forests.
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