REDD = Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation. (See Wikipedia for more information >>.) It is one of the few bright spots in international negotiations over avoiding catastrophic climate change.
Tanzania is one of a handful of countries worldwide taking the lead in developing REDD projects and has been particularly supported in this by the government of Norway. Part of this support has come through financing for a number of pilot projects by Tanzanian NGOs. MCDI leads one such consortium, receiving a grant of $1.95M to cover four years from 2010 to 2013.
The goal of the project is to pilot the integration of new financial flows from carbon offsetting activities under REDD with PFM and forest certification, leveraging these revenues as a catalyst to further expand sustainable forest management and use in SE Tanzania, bringing a further seven rural communities (~10,000 people, ~25,000ha of forest) into MCDI’s FSC group certificate by the end of the project.
The project aims to deliver six principle outputs:
- Combined group certificate, validation and verification scheme covering timber and carbon-based products open to widest possible variety of community-managed forests in Tanzania.
- Mechanisms to sell carbon offsets and credits for expansion of group certificate and/or forest recovery, and compatible with developing national REDD standards.
- Efficient, scientifically robust and cost-effective methods for participatory assessment and monitoring of carbon stored in forests including soil carbon.
- Leakages mitigated by reducing pressure from charcoal, shifting cultivation and other local drivers of deforestation.
- Best practice established for equitable management and sharing of economic benefits from forest conservation across the entire community.
- Achievements disseminated with policy recommendations for national and international audiences.
Our partners in this project are:
- University of Edinburgh, School of Geosciences,
- University of East Anglia, International Development group ,
- Carbon Tanzania, and
- MCDI's long term partners Fauna & Flora International
For more information see:
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