Securing Forested Land Through Carbon Offset Projects: Pilot Projects from the African Wildlife Foundation in East Africa

African Wildlife Foundation

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Abstract: The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is an international conservation organization working solely on the African continent. AWF's mission is to work together with the people of Africa to ensure that the wildlife and wild lands of Africa endure forever. AWF recognizes the complexity and severity of climate change in Africa and is focusing on increasing awareness and understanding of climate change, how various climate-induced changes will affect the landscapes, wildlife and people, and options for adaptation and mitigation measures. One of AWF's primary objectives is to protect and conserve strategic conservation land, this is also seen by AWF as a critical climate change mitigation measure. AWF uses a variety of conservation tools to secure land, such as conservation leases, land acquisition, zoning and land use planning. AWF is currently piloting the development of carbon easements as a new land conservation tool, wherein one uses the sale of carbon offsets to secure and fund land conservation in target areas wherein forest carbon presents a viable form of revenue. To date, AWF has been developing this tool in southern Kenya. AWF is working on a REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) project in northern Tanzania. This project is a pilot REDD project that has been designed to inform the national REDD Readiness plan under preparation by the national REDD Task Force. One of the expected outputs is a legally binding benefit sharing scheme between the government and the local community for the sale of carbon and protection of the forest resources. Tanzania does not have easement legislation; however, the process of setting up the project is similar to that of an easement project and is therefore presented here as a case study along with the project in southern Kenya. AWF is also working on a REDD Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This project is not presented in this paper, but will benefit from the lessons learned of the projects highlighted herein.