Conservation of Critical Chimpanzee Habitats in Bugoma-Budongo Corridor Forests of Murchison-Semliki Landcape using a REDD+ Approach, Western Uganda

Project presentation to SIA training workshop

(Organized by (FT, ICRAF & KG)

Kentmere Club, Nairobi, Kenya, August 10 – 12, 2011

Funded by: American Electric Power, Ohio (US$1,000,000)

Project duration: 3 years i.e. November 2010 – November 2013

Project implemented by:

Conservation Planning Unit 1: The Murchison-Semliki Landscape in Albertine Rift

Deforestation & forest degradation

PROJECT GOAL: To reduce deforestation and forest degradation within the Budongo-Bugoma corridor (BBC) by at least half by building awareness, capacity and governance mechanisms for private forest owners and community groups to access carbon payments and benefit from REDD based global approaches to climate change mitigation.

Objective 1: To assess the value of forest patches for chimpanzees and habitat connectivity and assess the feasibility of carbon financing as an incentive to protect those forest patches

• Intermediate result 1: Remote sensing and GIS capacity for carbon, land cover and habitat mapping and monitoring at the regional scale supported, strengthened and disseminated.

• Intermediate result 2: The feasibility of applying carbon incentives for conserving forest patches within BBC and biodiversity value assessed

Objective 2: To acquire land titles for forest owners, rehabilitate degraded forests, establish woodlots and agro-forestry as well as forest-based enterprises.

• Private forest owners’ networks formed and empowered to manage forests on private lands in BBC in support of a national REDD accounting program and sub-national forest carbon projects.

How much tCO2e is there?

Average: 333 tCO2e/ha

Max: 1045 tCO2e/ha

Min: 95 tCO2e/ha

Assessment of the availability of carbon in the landscape from plot measurements of trees.

To assess whether key landscape species are using the forest corridors at present

To assess the distribution and relative abundance of threatened species in this landscape.

To assess human induced threats to conservation targets

Household survey to assess socio-economic values of corridor forests

• Source of building materials e.g. poles, grass-thatch and

fibers

• Fuel wood for cooking

• Income from forest products = US$139

• Income from agricultural productivity =US$268

• Income from livestock productivity =US$154

• WTA REDD payments = $630/ha/year

Land Use & Land Cover Change Analysis

In total, the forests in the landscape outside the forest reserves cover some 122,867 hectares ranging in size from 4 ha to 3,400 ha . This excludes 120,000ha of woodland

Land cover from LANDSAT images of 2010

Organize forest patches and owners in to networks for implementing project activities and chanelling incentive payments

•1600 PFOs censused and listed•13 PFOs associated constituted• 1101 REDD+ brochures and 3057 posters distributed on a number of REDD+ issues• PFO sensitized on network sustainability

REDD+ feasibility study in Murchison – Semliki Landscape• Project Area: 2,639,702 ha of which

122,876 ha are forest

• From 2006 to 2010, forest alone has been lost at a rate of 8367 ha per year.

• Without Project 122,867 ha of private forest will be lost based on the business as usual scenario.

REDD revenue at Landscape level

• Emissions:

– Current : 2.8 million tCO2e/yr

– Project life : 40.9 million tCO2e

• Revenue (gross): at $5 per tCO2e

– Over the project life time: 204.6 M USD (20 years)

– Annual mean: 13.9 M USD/yr

Income from additional sources: (agro-forestry)

• Planting trees also generate carbon credits

• Introducing and expanding shade cash crops such as coffee and cacao with eco-label

Organize forest patches and owners in to networks for implementing project activities and chanelling incentive payments

•1600 PFOs censused and listed•13 PFOs associated constituted• 1101 REDD+ brochures and 3057 posters distributed on a number of REDD+ issues• PFO sensitized on network sustainability

Next course of action

• Partner with WCS to develop a REDD+ PDD for MS-L Promote improved agricultural practices

• Train stakeholder organizations to monitor forest carbon using GIS & Remote Sensing technologies

• Support PFOs to register and acquire land titles

• Strengthen PFOs networks

• Promote forest-based enterprises e.g. apiary management, tree nursery management, timber production and crafts

• Promote agro-forestry

• Promote establishment of woodlots for firewood

• Integrate project activities in to the national REDD process

• Build governance and administrative capacity of PFOs to ensure good accountability, transparent and equitable sharing of benefits

• Improving knowledge and understanding of forest issues

• Replanting trees in degraded forest areas

• Protecting water catchment areas

• Monitoring the status and changes of corridor forests

• t Promoting energy efficient methods to reduce

• fuel-wood and charcoal consumption and• production

Albertine Rift Forest Carbon Conservation Group