Carbon Credits to Fund Community Forestry Projects in Tanzania​

Incorporation carbon accreditation into developed projects

Climate change is a global phenomenon that increasingly interacts with the drivers of refugee movements and disproportionately affects developing countries, which today host 80% of the world‘s refugees and displaced persons. Climate change and environmental degradation can be
threat multipliers as climate related risks may exacerbate conflict dynamics and increase the impact of other drivers of conflict and fragility. People affected by displacement, therefore, need that organizations such as DRC brings a stronger orientation towards supporting communities as
they adapt to environmental changes. As part of this work, DRC has been working with communities to adapt to changing environmental conditions, as well as realizing that degradation of ecosystems can cause further challenges for livelihoods. To tackle this, DRC has developed several projects that tackle environmental degradation and support alternative cooking fuels and we‘re interested in exploring the potentials for incorporation of carbon accreditation of developed projects, realizing that communities take on many tasks and responsibilities as guardians of their environments but receive few financial benefits despite the wider benefits gained from such activities. Carbon credits allow companies to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions, by making up reducing or removing their emission of greenhouse gasses elsewhere.

Benefiting local communities

Carbon credit markets are developing in many locations where the DRC supports displacement-affected communities, but there is limited benefit felt by the communities themselves in terms of incomes from engaging in environmentally strengthening and carbon sequestrating activities. DRC
sought to understand the opportunities for carbon accreditation of projects and assess certain projects already developed in East Africa for the potential for carbon accreditation.

The terms of reference were guided by the following objectives:

• Provide advice surrounding the potential opportunities for engaging with carbon credits in its existing portfolio of programmes in East Africa.
• Give an overview of specific accreditation agencies that would be relevant for DRC community-led programmes and whose processes would be accessible to communities and DRC
• Examine two projects in Burundi and Tanzania that focus on land regeneration, tree planting, and briquette production to identify their potential for carbon sequestration as well as solarization activities.
• To scope out the carbon sequestration potential of the project approaches and identify steps for accreditation that are replicable.
• Identify a process for issuing credits and ensuring communities benefit.
• Identify the process by which communities can participate in the process and the benefits that communities can receive.