Ntakata Mountains Project – A natural climate solution financed by the voluntary carbon market that benefits both people and biodiversity.PATHFINDER AWARD 2021 WINNER

Carbon Tanzania
Publié: 16 septembre 2021
Dernière modification: 06 février 2023
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Résumé

The Ntakata Mountains Project is a natural climate solution that protects 216, 944ha of threatened, community owned forests. Using the REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) monitoring framework and methodology for carbon accounting, eight forest communities keep 1,200,000 trees standing, avoiding 550,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually. The resulting carbon credits are certified by VERRA’s VCS and CCBA standard and sold on the international voluntary carbon market earning the communities US$581,650 since the project’s first issuance of credits in 2020. Securing indigenously managed forests is critical to climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation efforts.

Classifications

Région
Afrique de l'Est et du Sud
Ampleur de la mise en œuvre
Local
Ecosystème
Forêt de feuillus tropicaux
Écosystèmes forestiers
Thème
Accès et partage des avantages
Atténuation du changement climatique
Connaissances traditionnelles
Connectivité / conservation transfrontières
Culture
Financement durable
Fragmentation et la dégradtion de l'habitat
Gestion des ressources forestières
Gestion des terres
Gestion et Planification des Aires protégées et conservées
Gouvernance des Aires protégées et conservées
Indigènes
L'intégration de la biodiversité
L'intégration du genre
Moyens d'existence durables
Services écosystèmiques
Sécurité alimentaire
Défis
Dégradation des terres et des forêts
Perte de biodiversité
Utilisations conflictuelles / impacts cumulatifs
Perte de l'écosystème
Braconnage
Manque d'accès au financement à long terme
Manque d'autres possibilités de revenu
Manque d'infrastructures
Mauvaise surveillance et application de la loi
Mauvaise gouvernance et participation
Chômage / pauvreté
Objectifs de développement durable
ODD 1 - Pas de pauvreté
ODD 2 - Faim "zéro"
ODD 3 - Bonne santé et bien-être
ODD 4 - Éducation de qualité
ODD 8 - Travail décent er croissance économique
ODD 9 - Industrie, innovation et infrastructure
ODD 10 - Inégalités réduites
ODD 13 - Mesures relatives à la lutte contre les changements climatiques
ODD 15 - Vie terrestre
ODD 16 - Paix, justice et institutions efficaces
Objectifs d’Aichi
Objectif 5: Perte d'habitat réduite de moitié ou diminuée
Objectif 7: Agriculture, aquaculture et sylviculture durable
Objectif 11: Aires protégées et conservées
Objectif 12: Réduction du risque d'extinction
Objectif 14: Services des écosystèmes
Objectif 15: Restauration et la résilience des écosystèmes
Objectif 18: Connaissances traditionnelles
Objectif 19: Partage de l'information et de la connaissance
Objectif 20: Mobiliser toutes les ressources disponibles
Approches pour l’engagement des entreprises
Engagement direct avec une entreprise
Soumission (I)NDC

Emplacement

Tanzania

Défis

Environmental Challenge:

Deforestation & land use change contributes to approx. one quarter of the world’s man-made greenhouse gas emissions while in Tanzania it contributes to approx. 70% of national GHGs. The key threat to the forest is shifting agriculture. In addition, grazing by pastoralists, mining, and the development of new infrastructure, negatively impact the forest, with consequences for water, livelihoods & conservation.

Social Challenge:

Undefined land use plans and boundaries were making it difficult for community members to defend and protect their forest leading to conflict.

Economic challenge:

There are few economic opportunities available in the Ntakata Mountains, the majority of which depend on healthy forest ecosystems. The people farm small family plots, harvest honey and wood. The REDD project creates an additional revenue stream that keeps the forest intact, enhancing the forests’ ability to provide essential ecosystem services.

Bénéficiaires

8 communities totaling 36,000 people are engaged in the REDD project & are responsible for the daily operations - it is these people who are the beneficiaries of the environmental and economic outputs.

Comment les blocs constitutifs interagissent-ils entre eux dans la solution?

The five building blocks are interlinked and must be implemented in the following order. 

1.Collaboration with landscape partners brings the necessary expertise to the project.

2. Legal contracts between resource owning communities and Carbon Tanzania form the basis of a long-term working relationship and solidifies the agreement of the partnership leading to the commencement of project development.

3. Project development begins with participatory land use management & the development of land use plans, which can only happen once relationships and contracts have been formed. Demarcating boundaries of the Village Land Forest Reserves helps to raise awareness of the project preventing conflict, which upholds contracts.

4. The development of a results-based payments for conservation using a REDD methodology can happen once the previous 3 steps have been undertaken. Following initial verification, certified carbon credits are issued.

5. Accessing the voluntary carbon market can only begin once the project has been certified. 

Impacts

The project benefits 38,000 people who live in & depend on healthy forests to provide ecosystem services necessary for a farming lifestyle. The people have earned US$581,650.00 through protecting their community owned forests. This revenue empowers the communities to determine their own developmental needs. They receive the revenue bi-annually & as a community determine how to allocate the revenue - usually to the community health fund, to building infrastructure to improve educational opportunities, to fund the Village Game Scouts (VGS) and other forest protection activities, to develop economic opportunities and to fund other community development needs as they arise.

The carbon credits represent avoided emissions that would be released should the forests be cut down. The credits are sold on the voluntary carbon market to organisations who are offsetting their unavoidable emissions, further mitigating climate change.

The forests provide habitat for 12 endangered species including the largest population of Eastern Robust Chimpanzee. Through the VGS, the community are recording the location & age of chimp nests and submitting the data to the Greater Mahale Ecosystem Researchand Conservation Centre (GMERC) in a bid to further the understanding of chimpanzees across the global community.

Histoire

Carbon Tanzania

Frank Kweka is a young man who grew up in a rural village in the Ntakata Mountains and developed a deep understanding of his environment while participating in the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots program. Throughout his early years and into early adulthood, he developed a growing awareness of the negative impact humans were having on the forests that surrounded him and decided to study conservation, earning a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies at the University of Dar es Salaam. Upon returning to the Ntakata Mountains he secured a short-term contract as the assistant at the Natural Resource Department at Tanganyika District Council for the Environment. When his contract ended, he continued to volunteer for multiple years to satisfy his passion while farming a small half acre plot to support his family. 

 

While volunteering, he witnessed a high turnover of people coming from Dar es Salaam and other urban areas to fill jobs in the environmental sector in the Ntakata Mountains. After a short time the visitors would leave having invested little into the area Frank had always called home.

 

When Carbon Tanzania identified the need to employ a Project Manager they were determined that the success of the project lay in having a community member fill this role. Frank’s experience and passion was quickly recognized, and he was recruited for the role in 2019. In the last 2 years Frank’s commitment to the project has been a driving force for its success with the Ntakata Mountains project now one of the most impactful and respected projects in the area. 

 

Frank’s experience and relationship with his previous employees in the District Office ensure the project runs both smoothly and effectively. 

 

Frank’s connection to his community runs deep, which enables him to see how the project can best serve the needs of all community members. Frank’s input has resulted in securing health insurance for over 36,000 members of his community, in revenue being spent equitably across the eight villages to develop educational resources and establishing initiatives such as the Community Conservation Bank (Cocoba), a microfinance initiative designed to teach women to open small, environmentally-friendly businesses. Frank’s guidance ensures the community members are empowered to determine their own developmental needs while developing a deeper understanding of the need for healthy intact forests.

Contribué par

Portrait de Sarah_40400

Sarah Borman Carbon Tanzania