Talking carbon finance with farmers

Valuable lessons on how to explain the science behind climate change and carbon markets to farmers is the subject of a World Agroforestry Centre policy brief that will be presented during UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa

To the farmer, being informed you can earn money for something you can’t see, but which exists in the trees you have or are being encouraged to plant on your land, might seem like a far-fetched story.

To the scientist or project manager, communicating information about climate change or the concept of carbon sequestration to farmers is a challenge when these are issues with which they deal every day.

Scientists and farmers might operate in two very different worlds, especially in developing countries, but with more and more opportunities emerging for farmers to benefit from carbon payments by improving their agricultural practices or planting trees, these worlds are converging.

Moushumi Chaudhury, Social Scientist with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) explains how it is critical that people working on carbon finance projects effectively communicate with farmers.

“Farmers need sufficient information so they can make informed choices about whether or not they want to participate in a carbon finance project,” explains Chaudhury. “They also need to be made aware of how the amount of carbon being stored on their land will be measured, monitored and verified.”

Chaudhury and her colleagues found very little information existed that would help someone working in the field with such communication challenges. “When we didn’t find any resources on how to communicate concepts such as carbon finance, we realized we’d have to do it ourselves.”

The CCAFS program brought together 12 people from Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, many of whom work with NGOs and act as brokers between carbon buyers and farmers. They discussed what works when it comes to communicating carbon finance, what doesn’t and what needs to be adapted to specific situations. The result is a policy brief, Improving carbon initiatives aimed at smallholders: Addressing opportunities and challenges through better communication, that will be presented during the UN climate change conference of parties in South Africa next month.

“There are three main issues,” says Chaudhury. “How do we popularize and translate the concept of carbon sequestration? How can we tailor messages to suit different literacy levels, genders, age groups and risk taking attitudes? And how can we support two-way communication between farming communities and external actors.”

Tactics and tools to address each of the issues are detailed in the policy brief together with successful examples. The policy brief highlights how the internationally recognized principle of Free, Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) provides a framework for developing effective communication approaches and tools. FPICsupports the rights of local communities to give or withhold their consent to proposed initiatives that may affect the lands they customarily own, occupy or otherwise use.

Martin Weru from The International Small Group and Tree Planting Program (TIST) says he was surprised to see that most of the challenges faced by people working on different projects in different countries were extremely similar.

“While our approaches to dealing with these problems might be different, the principles we use are quite similar, such as defining carbon sequestration in the local language and context, using different tools for women, the elderly, youth and other groups, and repeatedly sharing the same message because learning such complex concepts takes time,” says Weru

“Some people are using local proverbs or metaphors to explain climate change while others refer to local examples of weather-related events, and most of us use drawing and diagrams.”

While it has a strong focus on East Africa, reflecting the workshop attendance, the broad challenges the policy brief addresses are thought to be the same across the globe and the lessons can be adapted to suit different circumstances.

The policy brief is expected to be of particular use for other carbon project practitioners, agriculture and forestry extension officers, farmers organizations, investors ad national apex climate change organizations.

Download:

World Agroforestry Centre / CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, 2011. Improving carbon initiatives aimed at smallholders: Addressing opportunities and challenges through better communication. ICRAF Policy Brief 11. World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya.