Carbon Agroforestry
Yagasu restores and conserves lowland-, midland- and highland watershed ecosystems.
Carbon Agroforestry
Yagasu restores and conserves lowland-, midland- and highland watershed ecosystems
Problem analysis.
Yagasu analysis on data series from Local Climate Institute in Bandung showed air temperature, air humidity, precipitation, length of sun radiation and wind speed in West Java have significantly changed. Annual air temperature increases 0,010C or 0,350C during the last 35 years. Average length of sun radiation increases 0,27% yr-1 or 9,45% yr-1 during the last 35 years. Average precipitation decreases 1.85 mm per year, but the extreme rain frequently occurs during last 8 years. Average evaporation increases 0,01 Ep mm or 0,35 Ep mm during the last 30 years. In contrast, annual air humidity decreases 0,21% yr-1 and air pressure also decrease 0,01 P mbar per year.
Combined climate change factors and land-use change/deforestation) created impacts on the fragility of watershed ecosystem, flora/fauna, and human life. This condition affected serious problems on: (1) frequent floods and land erosion during rainy season; (2) loss of natural resources supporting subsistence of local agriculture; (3) marginalization and displacement of population, food insecurity and loss of job opportunities; (4) stress over water resources (over capacity during rainy season and drought during dry season causing the loss of clean water for 23 million inhabitants; (5) unequal redistribution of income transforming public goods into single-use private resources – intensive open-land agriculture practices mostly for vegetables. Annual floods occur frequently in several areas of the upper-, middle- and lower river basin. The fatal impacts when land erosion and annual floods hit the settlement areas in both watersheds resulted in loss over 123 human-life, destroyed 14.455 houses and caused 179.659 local people homeless and jobless during last 3 years (source: BNPB, 2019).
Project sites
Yagasu has conducting community base carbon agroforestry projects since 2019. The agroforestry projects are currently implemented in 5 provinces of Indonesia: Banten, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta and East, supported by carbon investors. The size of each project is 2,500 ha, and it can be extended into 10,000 ha. The project sites are implemented on community lands (non-state Indonesian forests). Each phase of 2,500 ha planting action will be implemented in 4 years, then followed up by 16 – 36 years carbon growth monitoring.
Project objective
The project objective is to restore and conserve watershed ecosystem for carbon sequestration, water- and soil conservation, natural disaster prevention and green livelihoods development. Reducing CO2 emissions by planting forest species and mixed farming system has positive impacts for soil- and water conservation, and sustainable green products. The project will also select buffer-zone villages of national parks and nature reserves that connect the agroforestry program with species and habitat conservation.
Planting trees.
The project sites are ranging from the coastal- into mountainous areas. The agroforestry carbon projects are implemented in 3 zones: the lowland zone (0 – 300 m above sea level), midland zone (300 – 900 m above sea level) and highland zone of watershed areas (900 – 2.200 m above sea level). The site condition is mostly degraded land with less than 10% plant cover and having a history of at least 10 years of non-forests.
Planting pattern.
The carbon calculation will be based on the 5 planting patterns carried out in each zone. Yagasu team will mobilize local community groups to plant various agroforestry seedlings that are suitable on each planting plot. The percentage of species composition and planting pattern will depend on each planting site characteristic, risks of mortality and preference of community groups. The balance of planting system in each zone will be an ideal for carbon storage and accommodate the farmers for commercial cash crops. The species composition will be adjusted if there are any specific locations need special treatment for soil and water conservation, especially in very slope areas.
Plot measurement.
After local community groups plant tree seedlings in a plot, the field team will check the number of seedlings planted (density) and plant tidiness of 5 x 5 m for 1st layer and 4 x 3 m for 2nd layer. Planting area (ha) is measured by polygon using the GPS. Photos are taken by camera and drone where each plot has a specific plot code that include the photo or video code as planting evidence. The planting plot that has less than 10% vegetation cover will be identified as 100% plot size (ha); while the planting plot having more than 10%, the size of the plot (ha) will be reduced by the percentage of existing vegetation cover.
Yagasu team conducts census monitoring for every six-months. The monitoring census will identify the percentages of mortality of 10-20%, 20-40%, 40-60%, 60-80% and 80-100% and the reasons of mortality (natural or human intervention).
Replanting the dead trees.
Yagasu mobilizes local communities to conduct replanting actions in the plots where have a significant mortality rate. After replanting the survival rate of each plot will be maintained into 70 – 90%. Diversification of species will also be conducted in planting sites to perform heterogenous agroforestry forests.
Conservation of ecosystem.
Yagasu set-up and mobilize local community groups in the villages to conduct routine monitoring to the planted trees and existing vegetation cover. The objective of monitoring is to protect, safeguard, prevent and limit the damage of vegetation cover. Before going to the field, all monitoring units will be trained on law and regulation, reporting and SOP of monitoring
Carbon target.
In term of carbon calculation, the project is a grouped project based on similar biomass accumulation rates of various horticultural tree species and shrubs. The planting system will be grouped within special attention to the similar carbon growth characteristics and planting densities. The planting system proposed for ARR project is carried out in three layers: 1st layer – for land-erosion prevention and water conservation, 2nd layer – cash crops producing commercial commodities and ground cover plantation – land surface shrubs – for soil protection and commercial purposes. Various bamboo species and palm sugar trees will be planted in very slope areas or used as a border between community lands. The carbon of each tree layer will be counted and estimated using existing reference allometries. The project activity will be verified based on 3-year project roll out of tree carbon growth period.
Project registration.
Once the project is started, it will be registered to National Registration System (Sistem Registrasi Nasional – SRN) and then listed into VERRA or other certifications (Plan Vivo, Gold Standard, etc). The international registration is based on the investor preference. Most of Yagasu’s projects are currently using VERRA. A good thing, now VERA uses New Methodology that allow us using our-own allometry for carbon estimation and verification. It means we can get more carbon based on the real data collected from the field compared to the conservative- or default values. The project will be registered to the carbon credit- and CCB certification. Establishment of certified carbon credits combined with green livelihood program in the project areas will contribute to the global carbon emission reduction, biodiversity conservation and SDG achievement. Based on the Non-permanence Risk Assessment of this project, our carbon accounting can be reduced to 10 – 15% as buffer credits deposited in the AFOLU pooled buffer account; or 20 – 25% if the carbon estimated as conservative or default values.
