A pilot in the Republic of Congo that aims to generate climate and biodiversity units under the High Integrity Forest Investment Initiative (HIFOR) has been launched by a US-based NGO.
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and a Congolese minister announced the agreement during a launch event in Brazzaville on Thursday.
The initiative will be implemented in the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, which was one of the first sites to be recognised as a Key Biodiversity Area (KBA).
The site, which has been under WCS management for over 30 years, covers more than 400,000 hectares of high-integrity tropical forest home to crucial populations of endangered mammals. Over 11 mln tons of CO2 has been absorbed from the area over the past decade, according to estimates.
The pilot will be audited against the HIFOR methodology released in May, under which units are defined as assets that buyers can use to make claims about their contributions to protecting forests and biodiversity.
Each unit represents a bundle of both biodiversity and climate benefits within 1 ha of a well-conserved and high-integrity tropical forest.
HIFOR does not promise biodiversity uplift, so it’s not relevant for any kind of offsetting mechanism, it only maintains nature, WCS said earlier this year.
This bundle includes the amount of CO2 sequestered by 1 ha of forest in a HIFOR programme area and the levels of biodiversity associated with the site.
Aerial view at sunrise over Nouabale-Ndoki National Park. Source: WCS
Existing market-based finance for tropical forest conservation does not incentivise protection of high integrity forests, WCS said in a press release.
“The HIFOR Initiative seeks to create investable units representing a set of science-backed ecosystem services, and to unlock a continuous stream of finance that support governments and Indigenous Peoples and local communities,” WCS said.
“The project we are launching today marks a very important step in the development of innovative financial mechanisms, enabling our country to make the most of its efforts to conserve forests and their ecosystems,” said Rosalie Matondo, Congolese forest economy minister.
To identify eligible forest areas that can generate HIFOR units, the methodology utilises the Forest Landscape Integrity Index (FLII), developed for evaluating the ecological integrity within the world’s forests.
Currently, HIFOR is piloting several programmes to test the methodology, including one in the state of Amazon, Brazil, which encompasses both Mamiraua and Amana reserves and covers around 3.6 mln ha.
By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com
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