Carbon management and rural livelihoods | Elaine Muir

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Plan Vivo – Carbon management and rural livelihoods

• The Voluntary Forest Carbon market

• Voluntary Carbon Standards

• The Plan Vivo Standard

• Applicability of The Plan Vivo Standard to forestry in Scotland

Contact Elaine Muir

email: elaine@planvivofoundation.org Tel: 0131 672 3782 | Fax: 0131 672 9299

Tower Mains Studios 18b Liberton Brae Edinburgh EH16 6AE

www.planvivo.org

The Voluntary Carbon market

• Not required by the law, not regulated by overarching authority

• Credits known as VERs

• Companies and individuals offset their emissions on a voluntary basis to claim climate or carbon neutrality

• Standards have been developed to provide transparency and quality assurance

• Voluntary carbon market transacted about 131 million tCO₂ in 2010

• Largest share of sales = REDD (29%), A/R (around 8%)

• Innovation and experimentation for future compliance schemes

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http://cdm.unfccc.int/Projects/MapApp/index.html

Why voluntary markets for forest carbon?

• Compliance markets NOT working for land-use

• Costly, complex and bureaucratic

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ISO 14064 37%

VCS + ACR 35%

Plan Vivo 10%

SGS 4%

CCB 3%

CAR 2% CCB + VCS

2% Other

6%

Voluntary forest carbon standards

• Increase transparency

• Provide quality assurance

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The Plan Vivo System and Standards

• Tailored for projects working with rural communities to conserve and restore ecosystems and build sustainable livelihoods

Plan Vivo: a standard and system

History of Plan Vivo

Stems from a 1994 DFID funded research project in Mexico

Objective: to assess whether rural communities can access carbon finance

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How does it work? What is a plan vivo?

• Range of activities: Afforestation/reforestation, agroforestry, forest conservation and restoration

• Participatory planning: Participants draw up plan vivos (management plans)

• Individual (smallholder) or group (e.g. community forest)

How are carbon services quantified?

The project generates technical specifications for each land-use.

• Additionality

• Baseline (absence of project)

• Project scenario

• Leakage

• Risks to sustainability e.g. fire

(determine risk buffer level 10-30%)

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Carbon benefits of different land-use activities over time

Avoided deforestation Afforestation / agroforestry

Baseline

Project

Project

Baseline

Approximate carbon benefits

• 40 tC/ha miombo woodland

• 120 tC/ha secondary tropical forest

• 200 tC/ha primary tropical forest

Approximate carbon benefits

• 15 tC/ha agroforestry systems

• 60 tC/ha mixed use plantations

• 100 tC/ha tropical hardwoods

Multiply by 3.67 for

CO2e

Ca

rbo

n s

toc

k

20-40 years

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Transacting carbon services (PES agreements)

• Project enters into agreements with individual producers or community groups for their carbon services

• E.g. farmer, 1ha afforestation, agrees to sell 300 tCO₂ at $3.60/ tonne

Community banker in Kiyanga

issuing a PES payment to a

producer, TFGB project

How are results monitored?

Monitoring and further extension support provided by local staff, with assistance and oversight

(emphasis on transfer of technical capacity, gradual decentralisation of roles)

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Conditional payments for ecosystem services

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Year Target/milestone Payment

1 33% plot established $/ local currency

2 66% plot established

3 100% established

5 85% survival + average dbh

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10…

15…

Achievements so far

• Projects under development or operational in 14 countries

• >4500 participants with plan vivos

• >20,000 hectares under management

• ~$6 million channelled to developing countries

• 1,000,000 tCO2 certified to date

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The Markit Environmental Registry

• Ensuring transparency and traceability

• Example serial number

PV-PVC-UG-100000000000171-01012010-31122010-1539717-1569716-MER-0-A

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How is PES financed?

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Certificate Issuance history

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How is finance shared?

Staged

payment to

communities/

producers

$3.60

Admin’

monitoring, etc

$1.40

Verification,

marketing?

$0.65

Certification $0.35

Example

price:

$6 / tCO2

• Producers must receive an equitable share

Project example: Trees for Global Benefits

• Set up in 2003

• Coordinated by Ecotrust

• Scaling-up from 30 to 700 over 7 years

• Expansion to new activities

• Further expansion to REDD+

• Socio-economic impact study showing poverty reduction

• Links to microfinance

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The Plan Vivo Standard: applicability to the Woodland Carbon Code

Similarities

• Both set out robust requirements for voluntary carbon projects, enabling consistent measurement of carbon uptake

• Both have a system of independent quality assurance

Differences

• Focus on developing countries

• Focus on communities and benefit sharing, to break cycle of poverty and environmental degradation.

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Contact

Elaine Muir

elaine@planvivofoundation.org Tel: 0131 672 3782 | Fax: 0131 672 9299

Tower Mains Studios 18b Liberton Brae Edinburgh EH16 6AE

www.planvivo.org