A Carbon-Conscious Future

By: Sheena Carey Photos: BioCarbon Partners

For those lucky enough to have been on safari in the Lower Zambezi National Park, dinner chat is full of sharing and comparingviews of wildlife and big cats sighted. It is rare, while on a game drive or watching the sunset on a motorized boat, that we stop and think of the carbon cost generated by fuel and food production. Taking a moment to reflect, it seems that the tools we use to immerse ourselves in, and appreciate, the natural environment–and the local people with whomwe share the adventures – are the very things that challenge their continued existence.

A look at the facts illustrates why achieving carbon neutrality in the Lower Zambezi National Park is such a big deal. The region’s deforestation rates are 11 times higher than the national average. The region has an exceptionally high poverty rate with 85 per cent of the regional population living on less than US$2 a day. The area is home to some of Africa’s most charismatic wildlife, including elephants, wild dogs and other threatened species. The Lower Zambezi National Park is part of a globally significant conservation area which also includes Mana Pools, the core of UNESCO’S World Heritage site. Typical of Africa, the Lower Zambezi National Park is a place where beauty intermingles with the threats poverty provides. Given this, a solution needed to be found.

Inspired by efforts to achieve carbon neutral national parks in the US and the UK, Zambian private sector tourism leaders collaborated with those calling for global climate action and humanity. This set the stage for the entry of Biocarbon Partners and the REDD+ Project. The combination of passion for wildlife and conservation, and the desire to give back to those most susceptible to the adverse effects of climate change, provided the drive to reduce deforestation whilst at the same time helping to promote livelihoods and resilience for those most vulnerable –the community. Aptly put by a member of Biocarbon Partners, ‘You cannot tell people to stop cutting down trees –you need to give something back.’

To the stakeholders, preserving the Lower Zambezi’s last remaining indigenous forest seemed a good place to start, for both the preservation of indigenous species and carbon neutrality. The choice was made and 39,000 hectares now known as the ‘Rufunsa Conservancy’ was ring-fenced, its location on the northern boundary of the national park providing a natural buffer zone between park and metropolitan.

Crucial to the success of achieving carbon neutrality was community involvement. Communities were educated about climate change and became authors of their own

fate. Recognising the monetary value of forest protection, for each hectare preserved the community receives ZMK2, amounting to approximately US$165,000 per year. Responding to livelihood concerns, beehives have been distributed, conservation agricultural practices taught and a clinic and a school have been built. In a major turnaround, communities have their own forest management teams patrolling and protecting their part of the forest.

As trees become the currency, Zambia’s tourism leaders become the buyers. Think of the carbon footprint a lodge can fuel through its use of diesel, flights, employees and guests. Tourism concessionaires take responsibility for the carbon emissions by buying enough carbon credits to ensure there are no greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations. And it doesn’t end there. Each year an auditor comes from the Verified Carbon Standard Programme to verify that carbon emissions generated are being offset by the number of trees.

In essence, ‘the carbon market’ provides a cost-efficient mechanism for the achievement of aspirational goals. By using the carbon market, entities can offset their emissions. Arguably, in the case of the Lower Zambezi, not only can tourism concessionaires take pride in their part played by achieving the world’s first ever carbon neutral national park; in addition,communities can celebrate their part played as protectors of the ecosystem and agents for their livelihood change.