Community Small Scale Afforestation / Reforestation Project in RA Lori Marz

Local Participant: 25 rural communities of RA Lori marz (Memorandums of Cooperation were signed between Fichtner and 25 identified rural communities on project join implementation)
Other Parties: Fichtner GmbH & Co. KG (Germany)

AR-AMS0001 ver. 1. - Simplified Baseline and Monitoring Methodologies for Selected Small Scale Afforestation and Reforestation (A/R) Project Activities

Fichtner GmbH & Co. KG in co-operation with the Armenian Office of EC "Technical Assistance to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova with respect to their Global Climate Change Commitments" Regional Project.

Not identified.

The proposed project activity aims to facilitate and promote the implementation of community afforestation and reforestation activities in Armenia and particularly in the Lori region.

Lori is one of the few regions of the country with a high poverty and unemployment rate where the natural and climatic conditions are favorable for forest establishment without artificial irrigation. The proposed A/R project activities are to promote growing of forests on grassland and cropland consistent with the simplified baseline and monitoring methodologies for SSC-CDM-A/R activities. The country has a scarcity of forest resources, which are currently under strong pressure. Any carbon sequestration benefits through the proposed A/R activities will facilitate the establishment of forests, so contributing to sustainable development of low-income communities.

Proposed project has a clear community based orientation focused on one of the largest but poorest administrative region of the country called Lori. Another important aspect related to the nature -climatic conditions were also taken into account when choosing the appropriate region for the A/R project activity.

Ensuring the voluntary project participation, the country TACIS office has prepared the official letter on behalf of the Ministry of Nature Protection addressed to the local government of Lori, presenting the goal and the objectives of the current initiative. In parallel a series of community meetings and field visits were undertaken to accelerate the site identification process and to promote the community participation.

Most of the surveyed communities are strongly interested to join the A/R project, highlighting the expected positive socio-economic impacts, such as creating local employment opportunities, poverty reduction, and development of community forest. The environmental aspects were also highlighted by the communities in relation to prevention of land erosion, regulation of water sources and superficial flows, improvement of the microclimate, avoidance of torrents, biodiversity enrichment etc. Certain communities could not joint the initiative, in spite they find it very attractive due to lack of eligible lands for the proposed A/R activity.

The proposed project is going to be a bundle of relatively small areas located in low income communities or individuals of Lori region embracing around 1000 ha of area. The project area limitation is based on applied methodology for the small scale project type, since the project is expected to result in net anthropogenic GHG removals by sinks less than 8 kilotons of CO2 per year. Other aspects influencing the A/R project area are derived on selection of target forest species, stand density, management technique, site index etc.

There are a number of site identification activities which are still to be performed in order define precisely the territories eligible for A/R project.

The planned activities are as follows:

• Technical inspection of proposed A/R sites in the selected communities. If they meet the land eligibility requirements under Ssc-AR-CDM project activities;
• Preparation of maps with geographic coordinates of the A/R sites in selected communities;
• Obtaining the legal documents proving the land ownership and tenure rights from the landholder (community/private owner).

Various socio-economic and ecological benefits are expected from the community-based SSC-AR-CDM activity:

• Employment generation and poverty reduction;
• Development of community forest;
• Carbon sequestration;
• Erosion control, especially in hilly areas;
• Regulation of watersheds and enhancement of biodiversity;
• Improvement of the communities' general microclimate;
• Utilization of forest by-products.

Project Status:

After finalization of the PDD the document was officially submitted to the Ministry of Nature Protection of RA as a main beneficiary of the TACIS project. Since then both Fichtner and MoNP have been negotiating with various donor organizations and carbon funds in order to provide project funding. However, no major interest has been shown by the foreign companies so far, due to high project risks and uncertainties related to this project category.