Community Forestry and Reducing Carbon Emissions in Zambia

In order to verify these results-based actions and conformity, we invited climate change consultants from AENOR to assess our carbon project.

Background on the carbon project

We began working with the World Bank in 2015 to develop Zambia’s first large-scale Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) carbon project. The project started as a pilot initiative with nine chiefdoms. We set in place a monitoring system that determines how much CO₂ emissions are saved by avoided deforestation as a result of our Community Conservation Areas (CCAs). Through a carbon offset scheme, communities are then paid for their conservation efforts. In the first monitoring period, 228,000 tonnes of CO₂ emission reductions were recorded, which paid out $490,000 to the participating chiefdoms.

COMACO, with independent evaluation from AENOR, began evaluating the actions and effect of our reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) carbon project. The aim of REDD+ is to encourage developing countries to contribute to climate change mitigation by reducing their greenhouse emissions (GHC), halting and reversing the loss of forests and degradation. The other objective is to increase the rate at which we are removing GHCs from the earth’s atmosphere through conservation, natural resource management and expanding existing forests.

In the first monitoring period, 228,000 tonnes of CO₂ emission reductions were recorded, which paid out $490,000 to the participating chiefdoms.

The carbon revenue has been invested in community development projects, such as the drilling of new wells in regions with limited access to clean water, or the launch of additional incomes sources like community poultry farming and bee keeping.

Evaluation is an important element of the monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of this project. As we expand our REDD+ carbon project in Zambia, this assessment gives us solid evidence of the effect our project is having in the action to fight deforestation and promoting sustainable outcomes that reduce carbon emissions.