Plan VivoSupporting communities through payments for ecosystem services

• What is Plan Vivo?

• Certification process

• Project interventions

• Project operations

• Market for Plan Vivo

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Overview

What is Plan Vivo?• A certification standard for

community-based climate and ecosystem services programmes

• Threefold focus climate, livelihoods, and ecosystems

• Flexible requirements to fit different legal, ecological, socioeconomic contexts

• Cost-effective• Supporting network and guidance

materials • Origins in 1990s – tried and tested

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The need for Plan Vivo

Rural communities can provide important ecosystem services

Carbon services Biodiversity Watersheds Soil stability 4

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Smallholders are on the “climate change front line”

But often communities lack capacity to tackle these challenges, and lack incentives

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What is a plan vivo?

• Range of land-use activities: Afforestation/reforestation, agroforestry, forest conservation and restoration, improved agricultural practices

• Land-use plans: Participants draw up plan vivos (management plans) • Individual/household (smallholder) or group (e.g. a farmer cooperative)

Participatory design and FPIC

• Begin by discussing local needs and priorities

• Activities selected for climate, ecosystem & livelihood benefits

• Different management objectives e.g. crop productivity, timber, products (fruits, medicines, oils, honey), reducing soil erosion, protecting biodiversity

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Registration process

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Costs and resource needs

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Process Costs ($)

Project Idea Note (PIN) review 750

Project design document review 500

Technical specification review 200/tech spec

Review of validation report and registration 500

Total for Plan Vivo Foundation 1950 (a)

Third party validation 5000 – 10,000 (b)

Total for certification 7,000 – 12,000 (a+b)

Project development costs Variable

Other ongoing costs-Plan Vivo Certificate issuance costs-Periodic third party verification

0.40/ certificateVariable

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• Ecosystem restoration

– e.g. Assisted Natural Regeneration

• Ecosystem rehabilitation

– e.g. inter-planting naturalised tree species

• Prevention of ecosystem conversion

– e.g. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) activities.

• Improved land use management:

– e.g. no/minimum till agriculture.

Eligible interventions

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• Smallholder and community woodlots Mexico, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Bolivia, Sri Lanka, Nicaragua

• REDD, community forest conservation and improved forest management India, Indonesia, Liberia, Philippines, Mozambique, Mexico, Nepal

• Fruit orchards Malawi , Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda,

• Mangrove restoration Kenya (right), Madagascar, Senegal

• Assisted natural regeneration Burkina Faso, India, Nepal

• Inter-planting with crops e.g. tea, coffee Malawi, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Mexico

Ongoing interventions

Key requirements for all interventions

• Maintain or enhance biodiversity– Only native or naturalised tree species

• Land owned or subject to user rights of smallholders or communities

– Conditional inclusion of up to a third of non-community owned land• Positive livelihood and socio-economic impacts• No negative environmental impacts• Technical specifications needs to be updated every 5 years• Long term monitoring

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Performance-based approach - PES

• Project coordinator enters into ‘Payments for Ecosystem Services’ agreements with multiple participants

• Staged payments based on performance

• Aim for >60% of funds to communities

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Admin, monitoring

$1.70

Certification $0.40

Verification, marketing $0.50

Staged payment to

communities$3.90

E.g. $6.50/tCO2

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Communities receive staged payments for following their plan vivo.

Year Target/milestone Payment

1 33% plot established 20%

2 100% established 10%

3 85% survival 10%

5 85% survival + re-planting + average dbh 10%

10…

15…

Performance-related payments – planting example

Example for conservation (avoided emissions)

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Year Target/milestone Payment

1 Community governance structure established + % of deforestation

reduction

20%

2 e.g. NTFP plan developed + % deforestation reduction

10%

3 e.g. Fire break + … 10%

5 10%

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7…

Who coordinates Plan Vivo projects?

• Local/national/regional NGOs and civil society organisations with capacity to mobilise and support communities

• Often roles for governments e.g. in training/technical roles• Some initial capacity-building may be required e.g. for carbon quantification• Older projects act as trainers and consultants for new projects

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Financing: How are ecosystem services paid for?

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Community

Community

Community

Community

Plan Vivo coordinator

Plan Vivo Certificates

• Plan Vivo Certificates demonstrate performance - not always “offsets”

• Traded on the Markit Environmental Registry

Supply chain

security

Fund-based PES

Carbon markets,

CSR

Community

Growth mainly via voluntary carbon funding

Businesses purchase Plan Vivo Certificates for climate compensation/carbon offsetting and Corporate Social Responsibility

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Project example: Trees for Global Benefits• 8 districts in Uganda• Set up in 2003• Coordinated by Ecotrust• Scaling-up from 30 to >2700

smallholders over 10 years• Per capita income generated

$985• Over 2700 hectares under

management• Links to microfinance• Buyers include Nedbank, Puma,

Tetra Pak, Max Hamburger

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Project example: CommuniTree Carbon Project• Limay Municipality, Nicaragua• Set up in 2010• Coordinated by Taking Root• Scaling-up from 18 to 236

smallholders over 3 years• Per capita earnings $1,126• Over 650 hectares under

management• Expansion to new areas• Buyers include ZeroMission,

PrimaKlima, and MyClimate

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Plan Vivo so far

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>9,700 smallholders & 271 community

groups with plan vivos

$8 million est. income from

Plan Vivo Certificates

27 projects underway in over

20 countries

1.7 million Plan Vivo

Certificates issued

Key challenges in PES and land-use carbon

• Competitive marketplace, adverse to risk• Technical capacity for quantification and monitoring• Local barriers to long-term implementation such as land

tenure, extension services, institutional/admin capacity, legal barriers

• Ensuring carbon is balanced/integrated with livelihoods, food security and ecosystem needs

• Covering up-front costs

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Key lessons

1. Principle of aggregation – allow projects to start small and scale up over time

2. Enable continuous improvement–interventions take time, expect mistakes

3. Transparency and benefit sharing

4. Communicating non-carbon benefits key to long-term success

5. Be pragmatic and simple where possible

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Thank-you

More information at:

www.planvivo.org

email: dhanush@planvivofoundation.org