Impact Reports – Livelihoods Funds

LIVELIHOODS’ BET IN MADAGASCAR: The transition to resilient vanilla is well underway!

Livelihoods — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 13:48:07 +0000

The second most expensive spice in the world after saffron, vanilla is a consumer favorite. But it is also a very complex and fragile industry. In Madagascar, where most of the global supply comes from, rural poverty is reaching up to 81% [1]. In the past few decades, the sector has faced strong speculation, lack of transparency and high exposure to weather events which have kept vanilla smallholders in a poverty trap. Back in 2017, Livelihoods launched an ambitious project in the north-east of Madagascar to build a resilient supply chain with 3,000 family farms, over 10 years.

But five years later, has this new supply chain improved the farmers’ position in the sector? Have they managed to improve their income? Have they managed to produce high-quality vanilla while preserving their natural ecosystem? Livelihoods is publishing the encouraging results of a social audit in the area. Conducted end of 2021 by INSUCO, an independent international consulting firm specialized in social sciences, the audit demonstrates that the transition towards a resilient and high-quality vanilla is certainly underway.

Livelihoods' vanilla project in a nutshell:

An innovative investment model

L3F has brought together a coalition of private and public actors to tackle some of the economic challenges deeply rooted in the vanilla sector. The fund bears the investment risk and pre-finances the project activities to structure the supply chain. Danone, Firmenich and Mars (through its supplier Prova) have committed to purchase the vanilla produced by the farmers at a fair price for 10 years. The activities are implemented on the ground by Fanamby, a Madagascan NGO with extensive experience working with vanilla producers, Missouri Botanical Garden, a biodiversity conservation NGO and Maisons Familiales Rurales, an educational association.

The project economic activities are co-financed by the French Development Agency (AFD), a public institution which works to combat poverty and promote sustainable development in all continents. The French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM) is also involved to support biodiversity preservation in Pointe à Larrée. This facility implements sustainable development projects that integrate the preservation of public goods, international solidarity, and innovation in developing and emerging countries.

A sustainable, quality supply chain with 3,000 family farmers

The project is setting up a new supply chain which provides the farmers with the skills, infrastructure and material to produce high quality vanilla and improve their revenues. During the first five years of the project, farmers were trained on sustainable practices to increase vanilla productivity and quality. The creation of a farmer-owned cooperative aims to connect the farmers directly to the market and better integrating women and the youth in the vanilla production. In a context of high price fluctuations, the project is focusing on theft control, speculation avoidance and green vanilla prices to achieve prices standardization and more stable revenues for the farmers.

The project also seeks to protect 4,500 hectares within a unique tropical forest and a rich in biodiversity ecosystem: Pointe à Larrée. To achieve this, the partners are putting in place a community-based governance to manage conservation activities, apply biodiversity protection laws, and plant native tree species to prevent the area from natural disasters. Project activities include offering farmers alternative economic opportunities, such as clove production and poultry farming, to preserve local forests from illegal logging and slash-and-burn practices.

A social audit to give the word to the farmers

The respondents are all smallholder independent farmers located in the project area: the district of Soanierana-Ivongo (region of Analanjirofo) in the north-eastern part of the island, below Sava. It is spreading over more than 1,000 km2 and includes four municipalities [2]. The area is bordering a unique in biodiversity ecosystem: Pointe à Larrée, which is threatened due to increased pressure from local communities who seek for new sources of income.

Conducted in 2021, midway of this 10-year project, the survey aimed to capture the perception of the family farmers on 5 main topics: has the structuring of the new supply chain improved their position in the sector? Has the new organization helped to improve their income? Have they improved the quality of vanilla they produce? Has the project managed to better involve women and the youth in vanilla production? Is there less pressure on the local biodiversity?

This social perception audit was structured around three axes, mobilizing quantitative and qualitative questions to capture: the beneficiaries’ level of understanding about the project, their perception of the progress and results, and their perception of the pandemic’s possible impacts. The audit is based on a total of 109 farmer interviews, including 21 women. It was conducted among 91 households located in all 4 municipalities of the project area to represent a diversity of families. Facilitated by our local partner, Fanamby, the audit focused on capturing the functioning of 7 farmer organizations, by analyzing their governance, volumes of vanilla produced, and trainings provided. The study’s results are also based on the commercial transactions and governance audit conducted within Tambatra cooperative

1. 91% respondents consider the vanilla supply chain has improved significantly

Building a value-added industry for farmers was the first goal of the project. It aimed to shift to a transparent supply chain where farmers would be trained to produce high quality vanilla and earn a better income out of it. To date, the signals are very positive: 91% of respondents expressed that the structuring of the vanilla sector has significantly improved since the project launch, even during COVID pandemic. 95% of them shared that the vanilla industry has significantly improved as well. Plus, the theft rates of vanilla in their plots have been reduced from 60% to less than 5% in the area, thanks to solid support from legal authorities.

A vast majority of farmers (95%) expressed that the farmer organization “Tambatra” which was structured by the project partners, has significantly improved their working conditions in the sector. 82% of respondents also qualified the organization’s governance as good to very good. Tambatra, is a farmers-owned cooperative which provides the infrastructure, collection, delivery, and payment support to accompany farmers at every step of the production. To date, more than 2,000 family farms organized into 20 associations are involved in this farmer organization. The overall goal is to embark 3,000 families by the end of the project.

2. 96% of farmers consider that their vanilla income has improved significantly

Producing high-quality vanilla relies on high technical skills, patience, and precision. The farmers embarked in the project have been provided with technical trainings on vanilla production (from vines management, pollination to collection). Overall, 76% of farmers qualified the trainings received as good. 22% farmers even started to produce vanilla thanks to the project. When asked what contributed to improve their income, farmers mentioned the distribution of vanilla vines at the beginning of the campaign, an increasing price related to the higher quality of vanilla, direct sales made possible through the farmers organization with no intermediaries. This contributed to face the COVID crisis: 91% of them shared that household income remained stable during the pandemic.

3. Women and young farmers are better involved in the supply chain

One important ambition of the project was to better embark women and young farmers in the industry. The project aimed to embark the youth in all vanilla-related activities and help them acquire land to perpetuate the skills and know-how to the new generations. 59% of respondents believe that the involvement of young people in the sector has improved significantly. Since the beginning of the project, access to employment for young people has improved significantly according to 63% of the producers interviewed. Plus, the project has allowed to open an agricultural school to train the youth. In December 2021, the school celebrated its first graduates.

The ambition was also to help women be more involved in the chain and participate actively in the farmer associations. In other words, help them grow their entrepreneurial skills and make them active members of the transformation. Women have been supported both on production tasks (pollination, preparation of beans…) but also in decision making within the management of farmer associations. Today, 75% of respondents expressed women’s involvement has improved significantly and 30% of them shared the conditions of access to land for women have also highly improved. Plus, 52% of producers consider that the capacity of women to participate in the association’s governance bodies is good.

4. 770 hectares under biodiversity preservation achieved

Pointe à Larrée is anatural ecosystem located in the project area, declared by the Malagasi Government as a New Protected area in 2015. In the past few decades, it has increasingly been threatened by human pressure. Preserving 3,000 hectares of local biodiversity in the project area is one of the core goals of the initiative. Five years later, after a lot of awareness campaigns led by our local partners and the securing of farmer income thanks to a strengthened supply chain, communities have reduced the pressure on these natural resources. Today, the project has achieved to preserve 770 hectares. Overall, according to 88% of producers, the human activities that are threatening biodiversity have decreased significantly.

The study further showed that before the project, 15% of households were involved in charcoal burning, a figure which has now been reduced to 5%. The practice of tavy (slash & burn farming) has been reduced by almost half: from 20% to 13% since the beginning of the project.

5. Leading towards more food security

If the transition is well underway regarding the structuring of a new, transparent supply chain, vanilla farmer income, the involvement of women and the youth and the preservation of local natural ecosystems, when it comes to food security and farm diversification, results are less clear-cut.

To date, the study shows that the local intervention has certainly brought an increase in cultivation practices (rice growing, market gardening), but to date, the increase is relatively small. While before the project the percentage of households practicing market gardening was 22%, the figure is now 24%. 86% of households were growing rice before the project versus 89% today. The trend is rather positive but shows one of the project’s challenges for upcoming years is to help farmers make an income outside of vanilla production to improve more significantly their food security. To date, 45% of producers feel that the lean season has improved moderately since the project began.

[1] December 2020, the World Bank announced Madagascar was recording it highest poverty level since 2012: 77.4%. In rural areas, this level of poverty was reaching 81%.

[2] The project area is divided into four municipalities, namely: Manompana, Antanifotsy, Ambodiampana and Fotsialanana.

KEY FACTS & FIGURES: Investing in agriculture is more efficient than any other sector to improve global poverty

Livelihoods — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 16:09:31 +0000

2/3 OF THE EXTREME POOR LIVE IN RURAL AREAS

Even if progress has been achieved in the past few decades to reduce hunger and poverty worldwide, today, about 767 million people continue to live in extreme poverty. Two- thirds of the extreme poor live in rural areas, with a majority concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (1).

What is more, according to the UNCCCD (2), 80% of the world’s population suffering from hunger and extreme poverty live in rural areas. Many of them depend on agriculture, but only have access to degraded natural resources such as land and water.

LAND DEGRADED REGIONS OF THE WORLD TEND TO BE THE POOREST

Evidence tends to confirm that the regions affected by the highest proportions of degraded land, are the same regions with the highest rates of extreme rural poverty. A study carried out by the United Nations in 2018 shows that 20% of a total of 868 subnational regions across Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe, are also the same regions exhibiting the highest rates of extreme poverty: 27%.

65% OF THE EXTREME POOR LIVING IN RURAL AREAS DEPEND ON AGRICULTURE

Land is a key asset for the livelihoods of 65% of the world’s poorest populations. Land provides vital resources such as food, energy, but also shelter. Accelerated land degradation in the past years, therefore directly affects the agricultural sector in these areas: decline in natural resources and soil health reduces labour, land stock and land productivity. It also directly affects productivity activities for farming, including crop, livestock and forestry.

Land degradation has also indirect impacts on the households’ income, through increases in food prices and also because rural areas often suffer from bad connections to the market.

ACCELERATED LAND DEGRADATION HAS INCREASED EXTREME RURAL POVERTY BY 10%

Furthermore, progress in reducing poverty has not been synonymous with economic and social equality, demonstrating that economic growth in the last decades has not been inclusive enough. People living in extreme poverty have not seen their livelihoods improve in the last 30 years.

Plus, according to the UNCCD, land degradation could have increased extreme rural poverty rates by almost 10% between 2001 and 2015.

INVESTING IN AGRICULTURE IS 3 TIMES MORE EFFECTIVE IN REDUCING POVERTY THAN ANY OTHER SECTOR

Despite the alarming figures on rural poverty, studies carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations leave room for hope. Increased investment in agriculture is more effective in reducing poverty than any other sector. According to the FAO, it can be up to 3 times more powerful to take farmers out of poverty, than non-agricultural sectors.

However, efforts and investments need to be accelerated, because not all investments lead to poverty reduction. If governments and the private sector don’t consider farmer poverty as a core issue for fighting climate change, we will continue to face huge challenges in terms of environmental degradation, food insecurity or mass migration.

1. According to the World Bank, 2016.

2. The United Nations Convention to Combat Diversification

The proof by 10: Results of the study on the social impacts of the largest mangrove restoration project of the Livelihoods Carbon Fund in Senegal

Livelihoods — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 10:48:53 +0000

10 years after its launch, the Livelihoods Carbon Fund is measuring the social and environmental impacts of its largest mangrove restoration project in Senegal. These results are both surprising and impressive.

In 2009, more than 100,000 Senegalese villagers were involved in a major project to restore the mangroves that provide fish and many other food resources and that had been largely destroyed over the years. In 3 years, they succeeded in planting 80 million mangroves between the estuaries of the Casamance and Siné Saloum rivers. This initiative, led by the Senegalese NGO Océanium, is the largest mangrove restoration program in the world. This project would lay the foundations of the Carbon Livelihoods Fund, with the objective of bringing together private companies, NGOs, local communities, the public sector and civil society in major programs to simultaneously combat environmental degradation, poverty and climate change.

The Livelihoods-Senegal project was financed through carbon finance: the 10 private companies* gathered within the Livelihoods Carbon Fund have invested together in this reforestation program with the dual objective of offsetting part of their CO2 emissions, because mangroves have a high carbon storage capacity in trees and soil, and contributing to the sustainable improvement of the lives of local populations. Verra, one of the main international carbon standards, has certified that this project has already sequestered more than 160,000 tonnes of CO2 out of the 600,000 tonnes expected over its 20-year lifespan.

But, 10 years later, what about the villagers who participated in these replantings? Have they seen an improvement in their living conditions with more food security through a renewal of the stock of fish, shrimp and oysters? Have they been able to replant rice on their lands previously degraded by salt water as a result of deforestation? What do they keep from this extraordinary adventure? To answer all these questions, the Carbon Livelihoods Fund, in partnership with Ramsar[1], IUCN[2] and FFEM[3], commissioned La Tour du Valat, an independent research institute for the conservation of Mediterranean wetlands, and Océanium, the Senegalese NGO that implemented the Livelihoods-Senegal project, to conduct a study in the villages that participated in the project to assess its social impact. The main results of this study, conducted in 2018, are presented below.

The Livelihoods-Senegal project in pictures

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A people-centered methodology

The study of the social impacts of the Livelihoods-Senegal project was carried out over a period of 4 months in about 50 villages that participated in this initiative. More than 850 community and individual interviews were conducted to establish a representative sample of a complex that the Institut La Tour du Valat estimates at more than 50,000 households and 550,000 people.

The methodology chosen, the “Sustainable Livelihoods Approach” developed by the British International Development Agency (DFID), is based on both people’s perceptions and observation of change. It was designed to measure the social impacts of a project on livelihoods. The term ‘livelihood’ includes capacities, assets (including material and social resources) and activities required for subsistence. Livelihoods are considered sustainable when local people can cope with shocks while maintaining or improving their capacities and assets, without depleting their natural resources. [4]

To conduct the interviews, Laurent Chazée, international project manager at the Tour du Valat, trained 18 Senegalese auditors for a week in Ziguinchor, a city in Casamance. Divided into pairs, the listeners then went into immersion for several days in different villages, most of them accessible by canoe because they were far from the road networks, to conduct community and individual interviews.

By analysing the villagers’ testimonies, the methodology makes it possible to categorise the project’s effects and to understand which tangible factors – linked to the project or not – are being implemented. In order to verify the relevance of the impacts identified by the communities, the testimonies are cross-referenced with objective observations of the changes that have taken place in the villages (for example, the provision of gas ovens, solar collectors or mobile phones, access to water or sanitation).

Surprising & impressive results

The study conducted by La Tour du Valat revealed an important result: the Livelihoods-Senegal project is still very much in people’s minds and is one of the collective actions of which the villagers are still the most proud of to this day. More than 85% of villagers consider that planted mangroves have good growth. During the discussions, many residents indicated that they had participated in this project to provide a better environment for their children and grandchildren. Some even think that without the reforestation, they would have left the land of their ancestors. They establish a direct link between the restoration of mangroves and improvements in their living conditions. Thus, 95% of villagers believe that mangroves have had at least one positive impact on their lives.

The improvement of biodiversity and the increase in the number of fish and oysters are the benefits that top the list of villagers. This increase is directly related to the restoration of the mangrove ecosystem that supports the reproduction, feeding and protection of fish and shrimp. The roots of mangroves favor the attraction of oysters, which in turn find excellent conditions for their development.

The Livelihoods-Senegal project is one of the collective actions of which the villagers are still the most proud of to this day

Main benefits and advantages perceived by local communities following the Livelihoods-Senegal mangrove restoration project according to the study conducted by the research institute La Tour du Valat.

(The percentages correspond to the number of times each benefit or advantage was mentioned first by the communities).

In 60% of the villages, fishermen now have more substantial catches, allowing them to sell their catches in the surrounding villages as far as Cap Skiring. This increase in fishery resources also benefits multi-family households, resulting in improved food security and increased income. Women can once again catch fish and collect oysters for their own consumption or for sale in villages or along the roads. In addition, greater availability of fish in all seasons has led to lower prices on the shelves, making it more accessible to the most vulnerable families. The Institut La Tour du Valat estimates that the restoration of mangroves has led to an increase in fish stocks of more than 4,200 tons per year.

The study also highlighted a related benefit of the Livelihoods-Senegal project on rice field restoration. Planted mangroves now act as a protective barrier against salt water. Gradually, the rice fields along the coast are emptying all the salt that used to suffocate them. Farmers are harvesting again on plots that they had been forced to abandon because of salinization. Further inland, other farmers are seeing their yields increase as the land recovers its access or accessibility to the sea. The study estimated that 15% of previously abandoned rice fields could be restored and that rice fields further offshore could increase their yields by 10% and more. Although the complete restoration of the rice fields alone is a major project to complement the restoration of mangroves, the inhabitants believe that the growth of mangroves will continue to improve rice growing conditions.

In addition to the direct impact of mangrove restoration on food security, villagers’ incomes and climate change, the study conducted by La Tour du Valat highlighted other impacts ranging from strengthening community cohesion to the availability of timber or fuelwood, as well as the beauty of the landscape. What emerges from the surveys is the strong ownership of this project by the villagers. For 93% of the villages surveyed, the reforestation technique proposed by the NGO Océanium, simple and reproducible by all, is the first lesson they retain from the project. 25% of the 450 villages mobilized in the Livelihoods-Senegal project continued mangrove restoration campaigns on their own initiative. And more than 70% of the villages have set up monitoring of their mangroves with rounds to protect their forests from illegal logging. The impact study conducted by Tour du Valat confirmed a key factor for the success of this project: it enabled the villagers themselves to be the actors in the preservation and sustainable use of their natural resources.

More than 4,200 tons of additional fish, shrimp and oysters every year thanks to mangroves.

The project enabled the villagers themselves to be the actors in the preservation and sustainable use of their natural resources.

When long-term corporate commitment and carbon finance create a virtuous circle

Without the mobilization of the villagers of Casamance and Siné Saloum and the incredible social engineering of Océanium, the 80 million mangroves of the project would not stand today as a rampart against climate change and at the same time as a nourishing ecosystem for the inhabitants. Carbon finance has enabled vulnerable communities to restore their mangroves through the commitment of private companies that have committed to investing in sustainable projects. In return for their investment in the Livelihoods-Senegal project, the companies of the Livelihoods Carbon Fund receive carbon credits with high social and environmental value to offset their CO2 emissions. Investors in the Carbon Livelihoods Fund have provided Océanium with the necessary funding for replanting (population awareness, validation of scientific models, intervention logistics, etc.) and are going to continue to finance its monitoring and evaluation until 2029, for a total duration of 20 years.

*Crédit Agricole, Danone, Firmenich, Groupe Caisse des Dépôts, Hermès, La Poste, Michelin, SAP, Schneider Electric, Voyageurs du Monde.

[1] The Convention on Wetlands, called the Ramsar Convention, is the intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
[2] The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is uniquely composed of both government and civil society organisations. It provides public, private and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development and nature conservation to take place together.
[3] The French Facility for Global Environment (FFEM) has a mandate to promote the protection of the global environment in developing countries since its creation by the French Government in 1994.

[4] http://www.livelihoodscentre.org/-/sustainable-livelihoods-guidance-sheets

Photos: Hellio-Vaningen/ Livelihoods Funds.

10 years- 10 lessons we learnedfrom the Livelihoods-Senegal mangrove restoration program

Livelihoods — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 09:59:00 +0000

Launched in 2009, the Livelihoods-Senegal project, supported by the Livelihoods Carbon Fund and the NGO Océanium, has mobilized more than 100,000 volunteers to replant 80 million mangroves. 10 years later, here are the lessons we learned from this large-scale project.

The Livelihoods-Senegal project in pictures

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1. The villagers have the primary role

Without the mobilization of 100,000 volunteers from 450 villages in Casamance and Siné Saloum, this project would not exist. The entire social engineering of the project consisted in raising awareness among the inhabitants of the importance of mangroves for biodiversity and climate change, but also for their daily lives. Thus, the villagers themselves have become the agents of change.

2. Improving the daily lives of residents as a driving force for restoring natural capital

Environmental degradation is often a corollary of poverty. The villagers of Casamance and Siné Saloum are themselves the first victims of the disappearance of their mangrove. They have mobilized for the benefits it represents: more fish, oysters, rice fields protected from salt water. And they are now the best guardians of the restored mangroves.

3. Anchoring in the local culture

A project is all the more likely to succeed if it resonates with local culture. The Mangrove is part of the ecosystem of the inhabitants of Casamance and Siné Saloum, their daily lives, and their imagination. Even when it disappeared, the elders remembered their fathers’ and grandfathers’ fisheries. The NGO Oceanium has been able to build on this cultural background and express its desire to revive the mangrove swamp. While fighting against preconceived ideas (in particular the belief that mangroves do not replenish themselves) and creating a dynamic of change.

4. Keeping it simple

It is easy to make things complicated, but more difficult to make them simple. The strength of the project is that it has almost “industrialized” the planting process in order to have a model that can be easily reproduced by each village: community mobilization, identification of areas to be planted, collection of propagules, transportation, planting method, etc. Very simple methods and tools developed by the NGO have enabled thousands of villagers to get involved using tools and methods that are easy to implement. This simplification combined with very well organised logistics by the NGO is a factor for the success of the project.

5. Seeing big

After successfully testing the model on a few hundred hectares, we quickly set ourselves an ambitious objective: to replant more than 8,000 hectares, almost the equivalent of the surface area of Paris. This desire to carry out a very large restoration project has been an extraordinary factor in mobilization, with each village trying to do better than its neighbour, young people, women’s groups, elders, and a whole population has been set in motion and planted by hand 80 million mangroves in 3 years

6. Investing in the long term

The Livelihoods Carbon Funds will invest over 20 years in reforestation projects. Funding such projects over 2-3 years makes no sense. Beyond the planting phase, support for communities, training, project monitoring, carbon measurement and other impacts require long-term support.

7. Pre-financing

To enable local organisations without significant financial resources to carry out large-scale projects, it is necessary to pre-finance projects. Livelihoods Funds do not buy carbon credits. They take the risk of investing in projects by providing the necessary financing for the various implementation phases. Subsequently, when the project has sequestered carbon, the fund receives the carbon credits corresponding to its investment.

8. Carbon finance well used can be a powerful lever

Carbon finance, which is sometimes criticised, can contribute to high-impact projects if environmental and social objectives are clearly integrated into the carbon project. Companies that have invested in Livelihoods carbon funds are strongly committed to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by transforming their production models. In addition, they offset emissions that they have not yet been able to reduce through projects such as Senegal’s that have an impact on climate and poverty. Carbon finance makes it possible to establish this positive link between the necessary transformation of large companies and the sustainable development of poor rural communities.

9. Measurement and evaluation are much more than a constraint

Extremely precise project monitoring is very useful for overseeing and correcting problems if necessary. All replanted plots identified by their GPS coordinates, tree growth or mortality rates are monitored in the Senegal project. The carbon stored in the mangrove is measured by methodologies recognized by international organizations and audited according to international carbon standard procedures.

10. Restoring is not enough

Mangrove restoration has made it possible to rebuild the foundations of a vast ecosystem. We must go further and implement ambitious programmes to restore thousands of hectares of rice fields that have been abandoned since the mangroves disappeared, train young farmers and enable them to equip themselves. There must be investments in smoking and fish processing stations that do not destroy Casamance’s forest resources. And many other things where governments, international agencies in cooperation with the private sector could invest.

Photos: Hellio-Vaningen/ Livelihoods Funds.

80 million mangroves planted in Senegal: when social engineering & innovation generate positive impacts on a large scale

Livelihoods — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 09:23:40 +0000

The Livelihoods-Senegal project is the largest mangrove restoration program in the world. It is the result of collaboration between thousands of villagers, Océanium, a Senegalese NGO working to preserve mangroves, and the Fonds Carbone Livelihoods, an impact investment fund supported by private companies committed to voluntarily offsetting their CO2 emissions. Let’s take a look back at the origins of this extraordinary project and the innovations it has enabled to develop.

When planting a mangrove tree becomes simple and reproductible on a large scale

Mangroves form a forest that grows between land and sea in tropical and subtropical areas. It is mainly composed of mangroves, trees with aerial roots, immersed at high tide, which serve as a refuge for fish, shrimp, oysters and other birds and animals. As a result, it is one of the main sources of food for nearby communities, in addition to providing them with firewood and timber. It also acts as a filter between seawater and fresh water, protecting arable land. In addition, mangroves are a very efficient carbon sink, capable of sequestering between 3 and 4 times more carbon than tropical forests*.

In Senegal, the estuaries of the Casamance and Siné Saloum rivers constitute one of the largest mangrove reserves in Africa. Since the 1970s, the region has lost more than 45,000 ha of mangroves due to successive droughts, unsustainable agricultural practices, logging for cooking and construction, and road infrastructure blocking the flow between fresh and salt water. Year after year, the inhabitants of the coastal villages of Casamance and Siné Saloum began to perceive the consequences of the disappearance of mangroves with fewer fish, shrimp and oysters.

To face this situation, the Senegalese NGO Océanium, chaired by Haïdar El Ali, an environmental activist and former Senegalese Minister of the Environment, and Jean Goepp, then director of the NGO’s programmes, put forward a simple but indisputably effective concept: collect propagules, those long seeds that allow mangroves to reproduce, in healthy mangroves, and plant them where the mangrove had disappeared and where the soil (locally called the poto-poto) remained somewhat fertile. The biggest challenge is to mobilize the villagers. Océanium then sets off to the countryside through hundreds of villages in a truck bearing the slogan “Plant your tree”. Océanium raises awareness of the importance of mangroves through film debates and discussion groups. The NGO also trains them to plant mangroves: identify healthy propagules to collect, recognize areas to reforest, know how to deal with the tide to plant… In 2006, through conviction and awareness, Haidar and his team were able to replant 65,000 mangroves with the support of the inhabitants in the Tobor region.

In 2009, the partnership between Océanium and the Carbon Livelihoods Fund enabled the NGO to expand this action. Thanks to the investment of the Carbon Livelihoods Fund, the NGO Océanium has been able to finance large-scale field teams, trucks, canoes, computer equipment and village training. In 3 years, the NGO has succeeded in mobilizing more than 100,000 volunteers from 450 different villages to plant 80 million mangroves.

In addition to the social benefits generated by these new mangroves, the 8,000 ha of mangroves restored thanks to this project will sequester nearly 600,000 tons of CO2 over 20 years. The project will be monitored until 2029 thanks to the long-term commitment of the companies that have invested in the Carbon Livelihoods Fund.

Innovation at the heart of the world’s largest mangrove restoration program in the world

The scope of the Livelihoods-Senegal project and the long-term commitment of the Carbon Livelihoods Fund’s investors have made it a laboratory for launching innovations that benefit all mangrove restoration projects around the world.

For example, the NGO Océanium, the Carbon Livelihoods Fund and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have developed a new methodology to measure CO2 sequestration by mangroves on a large scale. This methodology, derived from forest methodologies, has been validated by the United Nations, and has enabled mangrove restoration projects to benefit from carbon credits. It has therefore made it possible to mobilize investments from carbon finance to develop mangrove restoration projects all over the world. The same methodology has been used by The Carbon Livelihoods Fund to develop other projects in India and Indonesia to improve the living conditions of vulnerable populations and to combat climate change.

In 2011, the Livelihoods – Senegal project included 3500 plots spread over an area of 40,000 km2. Mapping and accurately identifying all these parcels was a real challenge. To this end, the Carbon Livelihoods Fund collaborated with the consulting firm Agresta and the European Space Agency to develop a satellite plot mapping, with precise plot quantification and GPS planting density measurement. This method is now being deployed on all Carbon Livelihoods Fund projects through the use of more accessible mapping tools.

More recently, due to the good growth of the plantations, it had become impossible to enter the plantations without damaging the trees. As a result, “traditional” forestry techniques consisting in assessing carbon sequestered by physical measurements (height, trunk diameter) were no longer usable. A new technique for monitoring mangrove growth was then implemented by a three-dimensional measurement done by a drone. Thanks to 360° shots, it is now possible to virtually reconstruct the forest cover and measure its growth. This method, developed with the support of the French Global Environment Facility (FFEM), has been approved by the United Nations and allowed the second verification of the project in 2017.

The Livelihoods-Senegal mangrove restoration project in pictures

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Photos: Hellio-Vaningen/ Livelihoods Funds.

*http://www.mangrovealliance.org/mangroves/

Photos: Hellio-Vaningen/ Livelihoods Funds.