Kulera Landscape REDD+ Project for Co-Managed Protected Areas, Malawi
The Kulera Landscape REDD+ Project protects forests, biodiversity, and provides for improved regional governance, and sustainable forestry and agriculture in the project region. The carbon credits are developed from the careful accounting and independent third-party verification of the carbon sequestered through growing trees in the project zone.
Malawi is a sub-tropical land-locked country of high mountains and deep lakes in southeast Africa. One-fifth of it is covered by Lake Malawi, which fills the trough of the Great African Rift Valley that traverses the country from north to south. East and west, the land forms high plateaus that reach as high as 2,600 meters in the Nyika uplands, and 3,048 meters at Mount Mulanje. Malawi shares borders with Mozambique to the east and south, with Zambia to the west, and Tanzania to the northeast. Malawi’s highland forests, rivers, and Lake Malawi provide important habitat for many diverse species of flora and fauna. The country is home to elephants, baboons, black rhinos, buffalos, waterbucks, bushbucks, crocodiles, hippos, Livingstone’s eland, Lichtenstein’s hartebeest, sable antelope, nyala, Burchell’s zebra, impala, warthog, and more.
Malawi ranks among the world’s least developed countries. About 80% of the population lives in rural areas, with agriculture accounting for a third of the country’s GDP and 80% of the country’s exports. Malawi agricultural exports include tobacco (55%), dried legumes (8.8%), sugar (6.7%), tea (5.7%), cotton (2%), peanuts, coffee, and soy. With almost 20 million people, slowing, but still rapid population growth continues to put pressure on Malawi’s land, water, and forest resources. Reduced plot sizes and increasing vulnerability to climate change threatens the sustainability of Malawi’s agriculturally based economy and will worsen food shortages. The Kulera project provides a 5-km buffer area around three important nature reserves; Nyika National Park, Vwaza Wildlife Reserve, and the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, including a total project area of 217,270 ha. The project enhances biodiversity with protection and enforcement within the defined National Park and Wildlife Reserves buffer zones. Community encroachment in order to procure wood and other resources in the protected areas is mitigated with the added buffer zones. The project addresses the environmental, social, and economic needs of the indigenous Chewa people in the project zone, as the project works to provide alternative and sustainable livelihoods for these local communities.
This project image shows a section of the five-km buffer area (between the red lines) adjacent to the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve. The ridgeline deforestation is observable within this buffer zone. This edge deforestation has been due to unenforced protected area boundaries. The Kulera Landscape REDD+ Project protects and enhances these buffer zones.
The Kulera project formally includes the Malawi Department of Natural Parks and Wildlife and the communities as project proponents. The project provides for the formation of Community Associations, with democratically elected representatives from villages around the protected areas. Through this governance (bylaws, etc.), the communities are empowered to actively engage with its lawful and contractual obligations. The communities are active participants in implementing sustainable agriculture and forestry, distribution and use of efficient cookstoves, and enforcement against poaching. Community members have received training on conservation agriculture, community-based natural resource management, tree regeneration, establishment of tree nurseries, and tree planting. The project provides training in business skills and marketing for entrepreneurs. Alternative energy and fuel-efficiency solutions are also being introduced into the region.
Evergreen Carbon™ is offering these carbon credits at $10 each. We provide the purchase and retirement of the carbon credits on your behalf. Evergreen Carbon will provide you with the serial numbers of the carbon credits permanently retired. Please contact Evergreen Carbon at info@evergreencarbon.com for more information.
