UNCCD 2nd Scientific Conference

1. www.cccep.ac.uk
Soil organic carbon, poverty alleviation & climate-
compatible development: Lessons from Community-
Based Payment for Ecosystem Service projects
Andy Dougill (a.j.dougill@leeds.ac.uk; @AndyDougill)

2. Climate Finance & Community-based Payment for
Ecosystem Services (CB-PES) Projects
• Climate finance => flow of funds to help poorer countries mitigate &
adapt to climate change (e.g. Copenhagen Accord led to ‘fast-start’
finance of $30bn by 2012 & set up Green Climate Fund)
• Growing Voluntary Carbon Market supporting CB-PES
projects, especially in forest systems from which to learn lessons
• CBNRM lessons show ability for community-empowerment to
support Sustainable Land Management in range of settings

3. What is Climate Compatible Development?
o Achieving sustained economic growth &
social development in the face of
multiple threats of CC, while cutting
emissions or storing carbon
o Working towards ‘Triple-Wins’ & linked
to Green Growth strategies
o e.g. agroforestry, conservation
agriculture, joint forest management,
biofuels, clean stove technologies
o i.e. Sustainable Land Management
with added carbon-storage benefits
with CB-PES as route for support

4. Stringer, Dougill, Thomas et al., 2012. Env Sci & Policy, 19-20, 121-135.

5. • Study explores institutional characteristics of 3 African community-
based carbon projects that seek to deliver carbon-storage & poverty-
reduction benefits (Malawi, Uganda & Mozambique)
• Reviews rangeland CBNRM literature to identify additional
institutional requirements in communal systems
• Highlights value of institutional analysis alongside scientific studies to
enable links to PES schemes capable of realising poverty alleviation

6. Institutional Analysis & Lessons
• Analysis focused on 8 institutional characteristics of successful
CBNRM project design (from Dolsak & Ostrom, 2003)
• Project success dependent on:
– Strong existing local institutions (linked to traditional authorities)
– Clear land tenure (private largely, but can be village-level systems)
– Community control over land management decision-making (project design)
– Up-front, flexible payment schemes (e.g. micro-credit, nursery support etc.)

7. CBNRM Lessons from Semi-arid Rangelands
• Analysis of semi-arid rangeland CBNRM projects focused on
‘community conservation’ initiatives across sn Africa
• Rangeland CB-PES projects also require:
– Outline of project boundaries recognising complex communal land tenure
– System for benefit distribution linked to existing institutions
– Capacity-building for community monitoring of C storage & awareness
raising of benefits of C-friendly land management

8. Soil Carbon Benefits & Challenges
• Livelihood benefits of CB-PES projects associated with enhanced SOC
storage that increase crop productivity, water retention & biodiversity
• Current monitoring methods & coverage limit ability to display SOC
benefits of different land use & management scenarios requiring
further study
• Uncertainties linked to form of C storage (biochar v. SOM) implies
more complex monitoring than just SOC as form & profile distribution
remains critical

9. Developing Monitoring Systems & Valuation Assessments
• Spatial & temporal variability of SOC storage implies modelling of C
budgets is essential to move to a certifiable MRV system
• Exemplar projects required to share good practices, e.g.
– Trees of Hope, Malawi through work of Local Program Monitors
– Kenya Agricultural Carbon Project - first project to market soil C
credits. Soil C assessed using Roth-C model & baseline monitoring
survey with 60% discounted. Focus on maize in farmer comms.

10. CCD Project ‘Good Practices’
• Community input to project design
• Multi-stakeholder partnerships for implementation
• Defined roles & responsibilities across partners
• Locally-appropriate monitoring systems to assess
benefits & enable verification of C storage
• Clear communication channels across governance
levels of partnerships
• National network systems established to share
experiences to feed into policy development
• Regional networks invigorated to
share national lessons explicitly

11. Thank you
• www.see.leeds.ac.uk/research/sri/cdkn
• www.cccep.ac.uk
• a.j.dougill@leeds.ac.uk