We are seeking support to enable our non-profit ‘Organic Perspectives’ here in Kamuli (Uganda) implement an Afforestation/Reforestation (AR) project aimed at both environmental protection and creation of an income source to local people through the sale of GHG Emissions Reductions (ERs).
Organic Perspectives works to protect the earth’s biodiversity, promote food security and to support the development of sustainable and economically viable agriculture. This goal is implemented through agroforestry and organic gardening projects with small-scale farmers. Organic Perspectives is already implementing a small agroforestry project in Buwanume Parish near Kamuli town. As a suburban community, farmers here have small, fragmented pieces of land—hence limited space for large-scale tree planting.
We have therefore planned a big tree project in the remotest part of Kamuli district (Budiope County) where massive tree cutting for charcoal burning has prevailed for decades. The more trees have been cut down, the more people’s life has become harder—as they have no more trees for charcoal burning, droughts are more prevalent, food prices hiked, fuelwood has become locally expensive etc. An AR project would be a more sustainable environmental and economic alternative as it will both protect the environment and provide an income source to local farmers.
The key constraint in this is financing. So, while Organic Perspectives is a nonprofit (and is thus involved in forestry projects on this basis), we are designating our tree planting work as an offset project for the provision of GHG Emissions Reductions. This will not only ensure that our work is supported by carbon revenue from the project itself, it will also be an incentive for local farmers to care for the trees they have planted—as they will be entitled to a percentage of carbon revenue in turn for their involvement and offer of land for forestry.
However, carbon finance has as well proved to be inaccessible, since almost all potential buyers of ERs are interested in carbon credits that are ready on the market. We are only looking up to carbon finance for one sole purpose of making our work symbiotically dependent—generating the needed financial input from the project itself, while helping the environment. Carbon finance would only be an optional, by-component of our positive environmental work, but, the inability to access it has meant that we cannot do any work in Budiope either.
We request anybody who would be interested in supporting our planned work in Budiope get off the ground. This money will be used to cover the preliminary activities required to get our carbon project to a self-sustaining point. We can pay back a given quantity of our project’s future carbon credits to those individuals or companies who want this in return for the assistance they may offer.
The typical amount needed to do the AR carbon project (through to ERs certification by the VCS) is $250,000. This will cover all field activities and the technical components that will be provided by Winrock International on a paid contract of $70,000 - 105,000. Details of the contract are in a document that Winrock has put together. It is on: http://gaianlife.co.uk/organicperspectives/Winrock%20Carbon%20Project%20Assistance%204%20OP.pdf
Detailed information is on our blog: http://www.organicperspectives.blogspot.com/
Yours
Kalulu Anthony
organic.uganda@yahoo.com