Synvinklar och kapningar

Arla kriticeras i dagens Kaliberreportage för att de kallar sina produkter klimatkompenserade. Att våra kunder inte får kalla sitt engagemang klimatkompensation känns underligt då Plan Vivo-projekten i mångt och mycket var med och utformade systemet och definierad begreppet redan på tidigt 90-tal. Vårat begrepp har därmed blivit kapat, bland annat genom att blanda in oväsentliga resonemang om ”garantier”. Kaliber reser ner till projektet och tittar på det ur en viss synvinkel, där de bara citerar missnöjda småbrukare och negativa rapporter, och glömmer att redovisa att många andra varit på plats, gjort betydligt mer djupgående granskningar, och sett helt andra saker.

Projektet är unikt i sitt slag och är lokaliserat till en region med tuffa förhållanden både för människor och skog. Det är därför varje investerad krona gör så stor nytta. Projektet utvärderas kontinuerligt och lyfts ofta fram i sammanhang där man pekar på goda exempel för att reducera utsläpp, fattigdom och bidra till högre biologisk mångfald. Här är ett axplock av sådant som sagts om projektet vid olika tillfällen, och det börjar med en dokumentär om projektet som sändes i brittiska BBC:

Citat från CCB-valideringen (en av de mest ansedda klimatkompensationsstandarderna som ligger utöver projektets Plan VIvo-certifiering) genomförd 2010 av Rainforest Alliance:

• ”The project has now demonstrated that it meets the mandatory and optional criteria for CCB validation. As such it can be awarded a Gold Level Validation for providing exceptional climate change adaptation, community and biodiversity benefits.”
• ”The Sofala community carbon project in Mozambique has now been running for seven years and was found to be having significant positive benefits on the ground, in one of the world‘s poorest regions. The project has numerous project activities, such as agroforestry, REDD and micro-business establishment and employs many staff to achieve the project objectives. The project is divided into two project zones, and has thousands of distinct project areas which are parcels of land for which farmers have signed contracts and agreed to plant/maintain trees or avoid deforestation in exchange for ex-ante carbon payments linked to annual monitoring. The project is well integrated into the local community and has been the subject of numerous academic studies.”

FN:s jordbruksorgan FAO nämner projektet i sin skrift Climate Smart Agriculture från 2010 och samma text tas upp på RIO+20-hemsidan:

• ”Farmers are contracted to sequester carbon on their machambas (farmlands) through adoption of agroforestry practices from a ’menu’ that includes horticultural tree species, woodlots, intercropping food crops with Faidherbia albida, planting native hardwoods around the boundary of the machambas, and planting fruit trees within the homestead. In all, different project activities yield carbon offsets equal to 24,117 tCO2e per annum over an area of about 20 000 hectares. Farmers receive carbon payments at a rate of US$4.5 per tCO2 or in the range of US$433/ha to $808/ha over seven years. The project shows that carbon sequestration through land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) can both promote sustainable rural livelihoods as well as generate verifiable carbon emissions reductions for the international community.”

Europeiska Kommissionens utvärdering från 2009:

• ”The Project produced a substantial positive impact on the socio-economic development of the area, given the initial post-war conditions.”
• ”The Project devoted most of its activity to the involvement of local communities in improving their agricultural system, halting the traditional use of the shifting cultivation (slash and burn) and increasing their livelihood. In five years, a very short time for this ambitious program, the project team, represented by Envirotrade Lda, worked with encouraging results.The consultancy visited many farms involved in the project, compatibly with the available time, and results were good, in fact, local villagers are generally respecting a discipline at single and at community level; the general impression was that their awareness has increased about the necessity of improving their farms, reclaiming the fallows and protecting the forest One good point is that several technical specifications have been produced for different land use systems that farmers can opt to apply. Each farmer can adopt one or more system simultaneously or over time, thus adding flexibility.”

Citat från sammanfattningen av det EU-projekt kompensationsprojektet härstammar från:

• ”After five years, there is clear evidence that over 1000 farmers are planting trees, that the trees are surviving (dead trees are replaced) and growing (sequestering carbon) according to the expectation. Records are being kept. Woodlands are being actively managed and fire control measures are in progress. Moreover, a repeat socioeconomic survey (made by visiting households in 2004 and 2008) shows employment has increased from 8.6% to 32%, and that 73% of households raise commercial crops compared to 23% previously. There has also been a development of social capital, with a measurable increase in literacy and the development of a business ethos with associated practical skills.”
• ”Carbon projects attract criticism from some environmentalists and enthusiasm from others. Therefore the project partners have sought external evaluation on three occasions, invited site visits wherever practical, and organized an International Conference in 2008 to address all issues. The external evaluations have been positive. The European Union also sought external evaluation following the 2007 Annual Report. That review made a number of technical criticisms and pointed out errors of omission which have been addressed in the Final Report (see page 409-440, Final Report)”.

Citat från John O Niles (Director, Climate and Forests at WWF US) och hans tredjepartsutvärdering från november 2008:

• ”The project, which occurs throughout several towns in the Chicare district of Mozambique, has two successful project components: fire control and reforestation. The credits are clearly additional; without carbon finance the project activities and associated community benefits would not have been possible. Operationally, the project is run by highly-competent management. The operations team has a core mission to use carbon finance and project activities to fundamentally rebuild a sustainable local economy once ravaged by civil war. Every community member I spoke with, without exception, had only positive things to say about the project.”
• ”Currently, reforestation activities are going well, with hundreds of thousands of seedlings given to farmers each year. The farmers and community groups overall appear to be having success not just planting native trees and fruit trees but also in maintaining and growing them.”

Citat från Kooistra och Wolfs tredjepartsutvärdering från december 2006:

• ”Using a bottom-up approach with much community participation, the project has made considerable and satisfying progress in each of its three main components: the promotion of sustainable land use in N’hambita (forest management, agroforestry and non-timber forest products), research into the regional potential for carbon offsets generated through these activities and capacity building to enable the verification of carbon offsets. The project design is of high quality and continues to be extremely relevant in connecting in a practical way poverty alleviation with the ever more urgent struggle to stop the life threatening climate change.”

Citat från Stern-review 2006:

• ”The Nhambita Community project in Mozambique provides an example of the potential for a beneficial relationship between emissions reductions and poverty reduction. The natural habitat of the Gorongosa National Park was deforested and degraded during the country’s 16 year civil war. The aim of the Nhambita project is to regenerate the environment, reduce CO2 emissions and reduce poverty by incentivising local people to adopt sustainable agricultural and forestry practices.”