ASB Africa Biocarbon database

The African continent is the least emitter of Green House Gases (GHG), but the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Bio-carbon projects hold a great promise for the continent to contribute to climate change mitigation, while adapting. The projects also yield additional socio-economic and environmental benefits which are important to the local communities around the areas where the projects are implemented. The database takes stock of afforestation/reforestation as well as agricultural projects in Africa that contribute to carbon sequestration. The key items of the database include; 1. Project name, 2. Country, 3. Inve stor, 4. Amount invested (US$), 5. Implementer, 6.Type (Agriculture/Forestry), 7. Amount of Carbon offset, 8. Project Start year and end Year, 9. Status of development of the project, 10. Mechanism under which the project was initiated, 11. Area of carbon sequestration, 12 Best practices in community based programmes and smallholder farmer involvement, 13. Framework for benefit sharing, 14 Data sources. The key findings were: 1) Africa has more than 100 bio-carbon projects, ranging from forest conservation to agroforestry, as well as many sustainable land management programmes, but most of them are at an infant stage, with less than 5% generating financial benefits to local communities. 2) The continent is seriously lagging behind other continents in terms of participation in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), REDD, and voluntary carbon markets and if current investment patterns continue, the world will miss important opportunities to maximize emission reductions in economically poor but natural resource rich countries in Africa.