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The BioCarbon Fund could support a range of LULUCF asset classes, which are listed below, following the Kyoto Protocol terminology.
Leading Project Candidates (Private Access Only)
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Projects could include the following activities which are given here for illustrative purposes only:
Albania Assisted Natural Regeneration
The objective of the project is to increase carbon sequestration through afforestation and reforestation of highly degraded land, leading to enhanced sources of livelihood and incomes in poor rural areas, reduced soil degradation, improved water quality and conservation of biodiversity.
The project will be carried out through: (a) protection of areas for natural regeneration or re-growth by fencing; (b) supplemental planting at 250 seedlings per ha to enrich species diversity; (c) vegetative cutting to promote growth; (d) weeding; and (e) basic silvicultural works in years 2 and 3. The assisted natural regeneration fits the afforestation/reforestation definition of the Marrakesh Accords. The species mix would be as follows: two-thirds broadleaf natives (oak, chestnut, maple, birch, walnut) and one-third Robinia (from local seeds and planted with other species).
This project provides an opportunity to bring critically needed sustainable revenue streams directly to poor rural communities in exchange of public good services, and can therefore have a significant impact on the populations' livelihoods.
The project will cover about 6,200 ha spread over 30 communes and five regions. Over 120,000 people will benefit from this project through direct revenues from carbon sales, short and medium term employment, reduction of maintenance costs on irrigation and drainage infrastructure, reduction of the cost of water treatment and reduction of flood risk.
The project is expected to sequester around 230,000 t CO2e by 2012 and is implemented and financed by the Government of Albania, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food (MAF) and its Directorate General for Forests and Pastures (DGFP). Project preparation is supported by a Japanese PHRD Grant.
China Pearl River Watershed Management
For a number of years China has encouraged afforestation and reforestation of important watersheds, though with mixed results. This project will demonstrate how carbon finance can help afforestation to improve watershed management and also facilitate future sales by China of emission reductions from land use and forestry activities. 4,000 ha will be afforested in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which includes half of the Pearl River basin.
The Forestry Department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region will help the local communities and individual households design, implement and monitor the project. The sites selected for planting are shrub land, grassland, and open tree land with tree cover below 30 percent so as to meet the Kyoto rule. 75% of the species planted will be native, including Pinus massoniana mixed, Liquidambar formosana, Cunninghamia lanceolata, Schima superba, Quercus griffithii and Quercus acutissima. Eucalyptus will make up the bulk of the exotics, though it has been grown in China for a century.
The project will reduce soil erosion and connect fragments of forest land, thereby providing corridors for wildlife. The project will create 110,000 person-days of employment to local farmers, and about 18,000 households are expected to see their incomes increase through the sale of carbon and timber and non-timber forest products.
The project is expected to sequester around 320,000 t CO2e by 2012 and will be financed by the Government of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, farmer cooperatives, the Kangyuan and Fuyuan forest farms, the Luhuan Forestry Development Company, the World Bank through its loan to the Guangxi Integrated Forestry Development and Conservation Project, and a local agricultural bank. The forestry farms and companies are the private afforestation and timber production enterprises, which will implement and finance the project. The Forestry Department of Guangxi Province, together with its local forestry bureaus and other institutes will provide technical support and training to the farmers involved, supervise the project implementation, and monitor the environmental and social benefits including carbon sequestration.
Costa Rica Coopeagri Forestry
Costa Rica has been a leader in the development of innovative financing mechanisms for forest protection and recovery projects, such as the Payment Program for Environmental Services program, which is funded from local sources, including the unique tax on fuels, agreements with hydroelectric companies, and the issuance of Environmental Service Certificates.
This project will involve approximately 600 cooperative farmers. Of the total project area of 4,140 ha primarily used for cattle raising, 450 ha will be allocated to agroforestry, 2,490 ha will be reforested for commercial purposes using native species (Amarillón Terminalia oblong, Botarrama Vochysia ferruginea, Cebo Vochysia guatemalensis, Pilón Hyeronima alchorneoides, Teca Tectona grandis, Melina Gmelina arborea), and assisted natural regeneration will be conducted on an extra 1,200 ha.
The newly established forests will provide raw material for the local forest industry while relieving pressures on natural forests, providing new habitat for biodiversity, protecting hydrologic regime and reducing land erosion exposure. It will also create employment in the forest industry.
The project is expected to sequester around 454,000 t CO2e by 2012 and is developed and financed by FONAFIFO (www.fonafifo.com), an independent organization with a distinguished track record in financing forest programs in Cost Rica, and Coopeagri, a cooperative that groups 10,162 affiliates dedicated to farming activities such as coffee, sugar cane and forest plantations. The intermediary would be FONAFIFO.
Honduras Pico Bonito Forest Restoration
The project will assist small-scale farmers in the park's buffer zone to introduce agroforestry production techniques to improve slope stability, reduce soil erosion on steep slopes and enhance upland watershed integrity for freshwater production. The project will also employ hundreds of local people to establish a commercial-grade plantation certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, as well as reforest degraded lands in the park's buffer zone for conservation purposes.
The combined reforestation efforts of this project will greatly enhance the park's ability to sustain threatened biodiversity in addition to improving the integrity of headwaters for several rivers that originate in the park and its buffer zone. BioCarbon Fund Participants will each acquire a share of the carbon credits sold by this project at a price which is attractive and with the extra benefits of doing good to the local environment and the local people.
The project is expected to sequester 372,700 t CO2e by 2012. It is developed by EcoLogic, an NGO whose mandate it is to protect the wildlife and wildlands of Latin America by advancing community-based economic development and natural resource management (www.ecologic.org). EcoLogic is developing the project in partnership with a local NGO, the Fundación Parque Nacional Pico Bonito, the Corporación Hondureña de Desarrollo Forestal (www.cohdefor.hn), Honduran and international investors and lenders, as well as various private landholders in the region.
Madagascar Andasibe-Mantadia Biodiversity Corridor
The majority of the primary forests of Madagascar, which harbor large numbers of endemic species, has disappeared leaving only small remnants that are steadily being diminished by bushfires and logging. The predominant current uses of the land are for slash-and-burn cultivation and fuelwood production.
The project is situated in and around the protected area of Maromizaha, the Analamazaotra Special Indri lemur Reserve, and the Mantadia National Park complex. These parks are at the core of the remaining fragments of the Malagasy rainforest. In conjunction with local people, the project aims to restore a mosaic of functioning ecosystems, comprising both natural forests in the form of corridors linking fragmented habitats, and cultivated "forest gardens." The goal is to enhance the viability of the livelihoods of both people and native biodiversity, while mitigating emissions of greenhouse gases.
The project will conduct reforestation activities with two primary foci: first, natural forest corridors will be established allowing viable biological connectivity among several currently isolated forests and protected areas; second, sustainable cultivation systems will be promoted to increase soil fertility, protect watersheds and stabilize land use. These activities will significantly increase tree cover and reduce deforestation, turning a source of carbon dioxide emissions into a carbon sink. The forest gardens are envisioned to comprise a significant proportion of local forest plants (primarily Ravensara aromatica, which can be planted so as to mimic local forests in both structure and function). The gardens are self-supporting ecosystems that provide a significant percent of critical ecosystem services including hydrological stabilization, nutrient recycling and soil generation. These gardens would simultaneously provide products of value to people, especially food and income, to support local livelihoods and a shift in land use practices from slash-and-burn agriculture. In addition, the project will set about conserving a much larger corridor between Mantadia National Park and Zahamena National Park.
The reforestation component is expected to sequester around 150,000 t CO2e by 2012, while the avoided deforestation component could generate as much as 3.5 million t CO2e by 2012. It is developed and financed by ANGAP, the financial and operational manager of Madagascar's system of protected areas (www.parcs-madagascar.com), the Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests of Madagascar, Conservation International (www.conservation.org), and the World Bank. The project falls under the umbrella of the Third Environment Program of the Republic of Madagascar, a $150m program to protect natural resources in the Island supported by major environmental NGOs, bilaterals and multilaterals, including the World Bank (IDA) and the Global Environmental Facility.
Mexico Seawater Agroforestry
3,000 hectares of barren coastal desert and inter-tidal zones will be afforested in the state of Sonora, Mexico. Halophytic (salt loving) plants such as mangrove trees, are utilized for carbon sequestration and wood/animal fodder and honey production. Intercropping with Salicornia bigelovii, a halophytic oil seed crop, increases carbon sequestration and value of harvestable products. It is anticipated that this project has high replication potential along the coastline of India, Mexico and elsewhere, where mangroves have been degraded.
Two distinct technologies are employed. One uses traditional wetland management techniques, planting mangrove trees within the inter-tidal zones of the coast and fresh waterways. The second uses a novel method of managed forestry in non-productive desert lands adjoining the inter-tidal zones, using seawater irrigation. The latter is the predominant technology used in the proposed project. Both techniques use Avicennia marina as the primary tree, intercropped with other halophytic species, such as Salicornia bigolovii and several species of Atriplex, to increase vegetative biodiversity.
The project will build soil in the coastal desert plains and reduce land erosion by wind and water. The project is partnering with a commercial shrimp farm to treat their waste water with the mangrove forest thereby relieving the pollution and providing nutrients to the trees. The government of the State of Sonora is very supportive as the project will help curb the devastating pollution of the Sea of Cortez from the exploding shrimp farm industry. 200 well-paying jobs will be available during the development period. These people are expected to transition into the cooperatives once the forest is planted so as to ensure the management of the new mangrove forests. Access to lumber and animal fodder will also be improved. The project will also generate other non-timber forest products such as honey, and other co-products such as salt, and a phytoplankton used to produce Betacarotene.
The project is expected to sequester around 350,000 t CO2e by 2012. The developer is the Seawater Foundation, in collaboration with the University of Sonora. The Seawater Foundation has a track record conducting similar activities in Eritrea. See more at www.seawaterforests.org. The project is in negotiations with several international and national to secure its financing.
Nicaragua Precious Woods
The Project consists in the reforestation of 600 ha of degraded former pasture land with 90% teak and 10% valuable native wood species in Southern Nicaragua. The project also aims at the conservation of 355 ha of ornamental and fruit-bearing native species in the project area. Overall the restored landscape will contain 60% of commercial species and 40% of native species. Most of the native species being considered are threatened and some of them are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Existing natural forest remnants as well as advanced secondary forests and major single trees will be left standing. This will create a mosaic pattern consisting of secondary forest, (native) single trees, teak and groups of newly planted native trees.
The project will thus bring along not only carbon sequestration but also benefits regarding ecological, wildlife and landscape diversity. Additional environmental benefits of the proposed reforestation include the restoration of ecological forest functions such as prevention of erosion, groundwater protection, soil regeneration, improvement of the microclimate and water balance. The project aims to obtain certification in accordance with the criteria laid out by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC).
The project provides employment, training and career opportunities in a rural region with widespread unemployment. This will include jobs on a permanent basis as well as for occasional workers for seasonal tasks such as planting, weeding, pruning and thinning and harvesting.
The project is expected to sequester 180,000 t CO2e by 2012 and is developed by Precious Woods Holding AG, a Swiss private agro-forestry company that has operations sites in Brazil, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. Precious Woods Holding AG and its subsidiaries already have the FSC certification for several of their existing agro-forestry activities.
Philippines Watershed Rehabilitation
This project will implement a set of small-scale community-based watershed rehabilitation sub-projects in the Laguna de Bay watershed, a watershed that contains 13% of the population of the Philippines. These projects include three main activities: (1) streambank rehabilitation will increase the riparian forest cover of the rivers in the watershed in order to reduce erosion; (2) reforestation in upland areas will reforest denuded and grassland areas near the headwaters of key rivers in order to reduce erosion; (3) agroforestry will provide income for people in upland areas, the activity being undertaken by communities, with profits and revenues from carbon credits accruing to them. This project is part of the World Bank and Dutch-funded Laguna de Bay Institutional Strengthening and Community Participation Project, which supports land use and energy activities at the community level.
As a small-scale afforestation/reforestation project, the maximum emission reductions is 8,000 t CO2 per year, or 80,000 t CO2 over 10 years. The project is expected to generate 48,000 t CO2e by 2012 and is sponsored by the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA). LLDA was established in 1966 as a planning, regulatory and development authority to protect and manage the ecological resources of the Laguna de Bay watershed. LLDA will be the carbon financing intermediary and technical advisor for the proponent local governments in the Laguna de Bay watershed.
The Municipal Development Fund Office (MDFO) will be managing proceeds from a World Bank loan and allocating them, with a mix of loan and grants, to municipal governments. Municipal governments will, through multi-stakeholder river councils, identify and implement the subprojects. The loan portion will be paid back to the MDFO by the municipal governments and each sub-project will assess its ability to pay that back. In general, when combining the components for sub-projects for a given microwatershed, it is expected that they will be income-generating and cover the loan.
Tanzania Small Group and Tree Planting
Thousands of smallholders located in four impoverished regions of Tanzania are adopting simple agroforestry techniques, planting trees on their agricultural plots and around human settlements and switching to conservation tillage. As a result they restore soil fertility, create a ready supply of fuelwood, save capital for the future, and sequester large amounts of carbon above and below ground. A typical small group planting and maintaining 2,000 trees may earn around $40 per year. Increased crop yields resulting from conservation farming techniques may generate $450 per year. In addition, there may be revenue or cost savings from charcoal, honey, fruits, etc.
This innovative project, which already has several years of experience and planted several million trees, links grassroots communities with the international carbon market through cost-effective contracting mechanisms and modern information flows. It is a model for demonstrating the developmental impact of carbon finance and how remote communities in the developing world can harness the carbon market to help themselves and contribute to the global good.
Millions of trees have been planted and millions more seedlings are in nurseries (2,000 mature trees account for about 1,000 t CO2e). This will amount to large quantities of carbon emission reductions that will be available for sale to the BioCarbon Fund and other buyers.
The project is scalable according to demand. In a conservative scenario limiting the project to those farmers already participating and assuming no more planting, the project would sequester around 2,300,000 t CO2e over a period of 14 years (1,500,000 t CO2e by 2012). This project is developed and sponsored by the Clean Air Action Corporation, an organization with a track record in the NOx, SOx and greenhouse gas trade, USAID and the Dow Chemical Foundation. Carbon sale proceeds are channeled to the local villagers by a network of rural banks throughout Tanzania. The "TIST" project is featured at www.tist.org. Select "Project Areas" and "Tanzania" to view the current number of trees and seedlings that are currently planted, including the precise latitudes and longitudes of smallholder groves.
Ukraine Chernobyl Reforestation
This project will reforest about 15,000 hectares of abandoned agricultural lands in the territory of Zhitomir and Kiev oblasts, near Chernobyl, in order to re-establish forestry as the most economically productive land use for the area, prevent fires, and also sequester Kyoto-compliant carbon from the atmosphere.
Following the nuclear catastrophe, the agricultural lands in the vicinity of the Chernobyl reactor were classified in four zones according to the level of radioactive contamination and associated appropriate land use potential. The proposed project would reconstruct natural forests on abandoned agricultural fields where the prevailing low levels of contamination are such that the land is not likely to be suitable for the production of crops, milk or meat for human consumption until approximately year 2020.
These abandoned agricultural clearings are slow to reforest through natural regeneration and, in the absence of tree cover, the prevailing grass and shrub vegetation is particularly fire prone. Radioactive material is present in green rather than woody plant matter and grass fires in non-forested abandoned agricultural lands can lead to dispersal of radioactive material to productive agricultural lands and settlement areas nearby. Forested areas are less fire prone and dispersal of radioactive material from fires occurring in forests is greatly limited by the presence of the trees and the forest canopy. Hence reforestation would not only sequester carbon from the atmosphere, but would also reduce the distribution of low-level radioactive contamination, as well as the contribution of carbon to the atmosphere from fires. Project areas would be planted with indigenous forest forming species including: pine (45%), birch (45%), oak (5%) and poplar (5%).
The project is expected to sequester around 1,150,000 t CO2e by 2012 and is developed and financed by the State Forestry Committee (SFC) of Ukraine. Project preparation is supported by a Japanese PHRD Grant.
Uruguay Livestock Intensification and Afforestation
The project combines both the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from livestock with carbon sequestration by forest and seeded pastures. The beef and sheep industries constitute one of the main economic activities in Uruguay, and, according to National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, are also the major source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country.
Currently the land is used for extensive livestock production on soils covered by grass-dominated vegetation that has been subjected to 300 years of grazing, which have caused changes in plant species and soil erosion and compaction. Ranch farms are typically of large sizes (from 1,000 to more than 5,000 ha). These extensive systems are of low productivity and provide direct employment to only 2.1 people/1,000 ha.
Livestock production systems are very inefficient in terms of energy use (due to relatively poor pasture quality and low productivity) and, as a result, very large amounts of methane and nitrous oxide are released to the atmosphere. On average, 1.1 kg of methane and 0.04 kg of nitrous oxide are released for every kilogram of meat that is produced (a total of 35 kg CO2e/kg meat).
The project will comprise a total of 19,000 ha of land from 5-10 extensive livestock farms (to be bought by the project sponsor). Under this project, a fraction of the land, including the most fertile soils, will be used to implement a semi-intensive animal production system, which would result in a reduction of methane emissions per unit of animal product (from 23 to 16 kg CO2e/kg meat).
The land released from livestock production will be used to establish forest plantations for obtaining high-value, long-lived timber products and for sequestering large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Projected use of land will be as follows (figures subject to site-specific adjustments): Forest plantation: 10,000 ha, Improved pastures: 4,100 ha, Native grassland (grazed): 2,700 ha, and 'Unproductive' (native forest, protected areas, etc.): 2,100 ha.
The forestry component would have a very large socio-economic impact on the project area by creation of a high-value new resource, with potential to create a significant number of new jobs. Overall, the project is expected to increase employment by 8 to 10 times with respect to the baseline scenario.
The project is expected to sequester around 900,000 t CO2e by 2012. It will be financed by COFUSA, a forestry company, and is developed by CARBOSUR, a private consulting company involved in forestry and livestock project design and implementation.
*Not all of these asset classes will necessarily be used in the BioCarbon Fund and the examples
must only be taken as indicative of the types of projects that may be considered.
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