LORU, VANUATU
|
Vertical Divider
|
The Forest: Protecting 293 ha of tropical rainforest on eastern Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. Habitat for the threatened Vanuatu Megapode bird, and unique and increasingly rare Coconut Crab. It is also home to several endemic birds including the Vanuatu Kingfisher, the Vanuatu Flycatcher, the Vanuatu Fruit Dove, the Vanuatu White-eye, the Vanuatu Imperial Pigeon and the Golden Whistler. This rainforest also provides valuable protection from cyclones, floods and droughts for the Loru local people.
The Loru Forest Project combines protection of coastal rainforest and agroforestry - particularly nut production from the Melanesian Chestnut (Canarium indium). This project has generated 3,029 carbon credits annually since 2013 with the first credits issued in 2016. In 2019 the Loru Forest Project won the prestigious United Nations Equator Award for local innovative climate solutions. |
|
THE PEOPLE
The project is owned by the Serakar Clan of indigenous ni-Vanuatu landowners of Loru, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu. The clan consists of five extended families of some 50 individuals descended from Chief Serakar (1913-1997).
The landowners have given up rights to clear land for coconut plantations in exchange for the opportunity to sell rainforest carbon offsets as a way of generating revenue for local economic development. This project also provides governance and management support and capacity building for community enterprise at Loru. This is to help the Loru landowners manage the rainforest conservation project and develop spin-off community businesses - the first of which is a community business producing and selling agroforestry produce (e.g. Canarium nuts) from adjacent lands that they own and manage. Sales income has being flowing to the landowner business and generating employment since August 2016.
The landowners have given up rights to clear land for coconut plantations in exchange for the opportunity to sell rainforest carbon offsets as a way of generating revenue for local economic development. This project also provides governance and management support and capacity building for community enterprise at Loru. This is to help the Loru landowners manage the rainforest conservation project and develop spin-off community businesses - the first of which is a community business producing and selling agroforestry produce (e.g. Canarium nuts) from adjacent lands that they own and manage. Sales income has being flowing to the landowner business and generating employment since August 2016.
|
|
|
Equator Prize Winner 2019
TECHNICAL STUFF
|
The Loru coastal rainforest is protected as a Community Conservation Area under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act (2010). This project generates 3,029 carbon offsets annually, with the first years of credits issued in July 2016 for forest protection that has been in place since January 2013.
This project underwent project development between 2012 and 2015 with funding from the European Union. This involved a lengthy process of landowner consultation and participation, methodology design and validation, and project design, development, implementation and monitoring. International validation and first verification was completed in Q1 2016. The project and its carbon offsets are certified to the Plan Vivo Standard - the world's leading community-based, fair-trade styled rainforest carbon standard. Scroll down to access technical documents. Audited by CPMA International (Sweden) using auditors experienced in the CDM and VCS Standards. Its carbon offsets were issued by Markit Environmental Registry in London (the world's leading environmental registry). |
|