Home
About Us
Carbon Funds and Facilities
>> Prototype Carbon Fund
>> The Netherlands CDM Facility
>> Community Development Carbon Fund
>> BioCarbon Fund
>> About
>> Participants T1
>> Participants T2
>> BioCFPlus
>> Projects T1
>> Projects T2
>> Document Library
>> Topic Areas
>> Useful LULUCF Resources
>> Italian Carbon Fund
>> The Netherlands European Carbon Facility
>> Danish Carbon Fund
>> Spanish Carbon Fund
>> Umbrella Carbon Facility
>> Forest Carbon Partnership Facility
>> Carbon Fund for Europe
For Project Developers
For Service Providers
Methodology
Projects
Capacity Building
News & Events
Document Library
Search
 
Site Tools
Carbon Finance Helpdesk
Glossary of Terms
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Links
My Page

Login
Username
Password

Back to Project Summary Page


Mali Acacia Community Plantations

Biodiversity
The acacia plantations will be developed on deforested lands with less than 5% tree cover, which are currently completely degraded and unfit for either agricultural activity or grazing. The Acacia Senegalensis is one of the most robust species in the Sahelian Belt with an exceptional potential to thrive in very harsh ecological conditions, while simultaneously restoring degraded ecosystems. The plantations will start a virtuous cycle helping to restore the local ecosystem and biodiversity. A pilot project in Niger has successfully developed 1,200 ha of such plantations on the same type of extremely degraded lands, and has also witnessed a progressive return of wildlife once the trees were developed enough and fencing was eliminated. The trees actually provide natural habitats and shadow for bees, birds, and small animals. Additionally, the sustainable management of the plantations also provides fuelwood that will help reduce the pressure on the existing natural forest.

The new forest will be created by the propagation of cuttings, which will avoid any negative effect on the native tree population. These cuttings will be obtained from phenotypically selected seedlings to ensure significant genetic variation.

Other Environmental Benefits and Risks
Acacia Senegalensis is a multi-purpose tree, and using it for reforestation in a sustainable framework will provide several additional environmental benefits. The powerful rooting system of the trees will improve dune-fixing, and will also help reduce erosion in conjunction with the improved agriculture methods. Being leguminous plants, they will enhance nitrogen fixation in the soil. Their cover will increase shade and serve as windbreaks for crop land, and leaves falling each year as part of the life cycle of the trees will also fertilize the soil. The soil regeneration in turn will provide more grass and animal fodder, and raise the water table. The development of intercropping will provide extra income to project participants but also help regenerate the ground with nutrients. Finally, the plantations will improve the landscape.

As local communities become more experienced with the plantations, they are expected to wish to expand their reforestation efforts, expanding also the associated environmental benefits. A monitoring plan will be developed as part of the project preparation. It will particularly emphasize the close collaboration needed between the communities and project developers.

The ADCP, in collaboration with Deguessi Vert and IER, will be responsible for ensuring the project's sustainability and monitoring. Socio-economic benefits and risks
The project is expected to create about 1,700 jobs for the entire project plantations' management and the production, transport, and selling of Arabic gum. In addition, the management of the nurseries will create about 200 jobs. About 10,000 farming families are expected to benefit from the project with their own Acacia plantations (a little less than one hectare per participant).

Communities will derive direct benefits from Arabic gum sales to which the joint venture will commit. Additional benefits will come from the reintroduction of agriculture through intercropping with groundnuts, cowpeas, and other local crops, which will be developed at the start of the rainy season. Finally, forage from leaves and seeds and the sustainable production of fuel wood will help improve local livelihoods. These additional benefits are likely to exceed direct income from the plantation. At the national level, the sale of Arabic gum will also provide an additional inflow of foreign exchange.

The joint venture IER Deguessi will be heavily involved in training local communities to better manage their Acacia plantations and produce high quality Arabic gum. Training will cover basic agricultural techniques, possibilities for inter-cropping, correct pruning of trees and proper gum searing and sorting techniques.

All these benefits will be ensured and formalized through a contractual relationship between the joint venture and each community. The contractual relationship will include the supply of farmers with acacia seedlings of improved quality, the purchase of additional biomass from tree pruning and the administration and payment to local farmers of their share of revenue from the sale of temporary CERs. The joint venture will therefore have a strong economic incentive to ensure that training is adequate and extensive as this will improve the quality of Arabic gum it has committed to purchase. This training will also ensure the transfer of know-how and create a more favorable basis for long-term income growth. The communities involved will represent various ethnic groups. All communities involved have equal rights under Mali legislation, and there is no evidence that any group will be disadvantaged in the course of the proposed project. The participatory nature of the project will help ensure that the decision-making process is fair. Participation to the project is voluntary and does not include any special requirement. Potential participants have been identified by directly talking to the communities. Communities choosing to get involved in the project will manage their plantation according to their objective of gum sale.

The ADCP, in collaboration with Deguessi Vert and IER, will be responsible for ensuring the project's sustainability and monitoring.

Leakage
The Project will be implemented on lands currently unsuitable for any economic activity and only covered at 5% by trees. These areas do not serve as source of fuelwood either. In addition, the project is to be coupled with the Mali Biomass Charcoal Production Project that is expected to produce about 5,000 tons of biomass charcoal a year, to be substituted for wood charcoal. The project will therefore not cause any resettlement of populations and will on the contrary provide employment locally and likely reduce migrations. Farmers outside the areas to be replanted under the projects are expected to progressively start their own replanting of Acacia Senegalensis by getting improved seedlings from project-induced modern nurseries. Therefore the project is not expected to cause any leakage.

Risk of Non Permanence
Premature tree harvesting or land conversion represent potential risks to the permanence of the project. They, however, are rather unlikely. Local communities will have a financial interest to continue with the plantations as they will provide them with a steady revenue stream from Arabic gum through the contractual relationship between local communities and the IER-Deguessi joint venture. Acacia plantations will also become more and more arable for intercropping, providing another durable source of income. These benefits significantly exceed the economic benefits of prematurely harvesting trees for firewood. Communities will be made aware of this fact through training and know-how provided by the IER-Deguessi joint venture, which will also provide them with the tools to maintain them.

Risk from overgrazing will only be significant at the beginning of the project, and fencing will be employed to control it. In addition, the project will install pastoral corridors, and will train the local stakeholders in conflict resolution to prevent potential conflicts between herders and farmers. Risk of fire will be mitigated by keeping a non-cultivated buffer zone around the plantations. In addition, local communities will be involved and provide safekeepers to patrol the plantations.

Additionality
The land devoted to the project is completely degraded, so that neither agricultural nor grazing activities are possible. At this stage, the re-growth of even the most resistant plants is hampered, and the land is economically unusable. Except for acacia and its exceptional qualities, there is no other tree plantation we are aware of currently offering a feasible economic alternative. More broadly, no such project has successfully taken place in Mali or neighboring countries over the last 20 years. Past experience has also demonstrated that local communities on their own have not been able to successfully develop and manage Acacia plantations. Additional financing will therefore be necessary to allow the project developers to offset the additional costs associated with providing training, maintaining a high quality nursery and transferring other know-how to local farmers. Carbon finance will also provide an important complementary source of income to local communities, particularly during the first few years of the project, when the Acacia trees are not yet producing Arabic gum.

Legal Disclaimer