Strengthening Gender Equality to Fight Climate Change at the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project
Wildlife Works’ Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project has revolutionized girls’ access to education and improved women’s financial independence.
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WILDLIFE WORKS REDD+ PROJECTS
Invest in Community-Led Forest Conservation
CLIMATE FINANCE FOR FOREST CONSERVATION
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.
WHERE WE WORK
3 REDD+ Projects in the Pacific Ecoregion of Colombia
2 REDD+ Projects in Amazonian Colombia
REDD+ Project:Kasigau, Kenya
REDD+ Project:
Mai Ndombe, Democratic Republic of the Congo
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 to ensure equitable REDD+ projects distilled from this framework .
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+ FAQ
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 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.
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