Ecobank Malawi Limited recently pledged its continued support to projects aimed at combating the effects of climate change.

The pledge was made at Ntchisi, a district in central Malawi, as the bank made the last payment of a 3 year carbon sequestration tree planting project worth $7,500. The project is implemented by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in cooperation with the Sustainability Science Programme at Harvard University.
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Payments for environmental services target communities whose economic activities have a direct impact on environmental resources and aims at providing them with incentives for protecting the ecosystem.
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The Kagera River is one of the largest rivers flowing into Lake Victoria, the largest fresh water body in Africa. The natural resources of the Kagera river basin face increasing pressure as a result of population growth, intensification of agriculture and livestock activities and unsustainable land management practices.

A farm in the Kagera River basin. PHOTO: FAO

The Kagera river basin covers an area of 59,700 square kilometres, distributed between Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. The basin supports some 16.5 million people, the majority in rural areas and depending directly on farming, herding and fishing activities. Most of the inhabitants are very poor and unable to invest in improved resources management.

Refugee movements in recent decades have further increased pressures on resources in the basin, raising actual and potential conflicts between interest groups and across countries.
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Policy makers, private sector stakeholders, and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are in Nairobi, Kenya, for two training workshops by PRESA and its partners.

The first workshop, which will be on Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and Reducing Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation (REDD+), runs from 8 to 9 August 2011. Participants include policy makers, private sector stakeholders and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Cameroon, Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.  The content will focus on providing participants with:
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Located in the western part of Kenya, the Nyando River flows from the Rift Valley highlands, supplying irrigation water to vast rice fields along the way before emptying into Lake Victoria.

At right, Walter Adongo from the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) contributes to discussions. On the left is Pamella Were from the Moi University.

Severe problems of environmental degradation and poverty can be found throughout the Nyando basin. Soil erosion causes heavy sedimentation in the river, as yawning gulleys eat up farms and separate villages. Flooding destroys homes and farmland whenever it rains, rendering thousands of people destitute. Meanwhile, intense agricultural activity is causing excessive flow of nutrients into the Nyando River, and subsequently, into Lake Victoria.

Dialogue on solving environmental problems across the Nyando basin has been made difficult in recent years by ethnic tension between the inhabitants of the highlands and those of the lowlands.

PRESA sees payments and rewards for environmental services (PES) as a viable means of addressing environmental degradation at the Nyando River basin. However, the Nyando basin is unique in that, while the prospective sellers of environmental services are identified as the local communities, the buyers are not easy to distinguish.
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By Nyongesa Josephat

504 Kenyan farmers have received 799,724 Kenya Shillings (US$ 8,886) this year from industrialists and conservation groups around Lake Naivasha, for land use practices that ensure adequate flow of clean water into the lake through the Malewa River.

Water Resources Director, Mr John Nyaoro (left) receives a cheque from LANAWRUA chairman Mr. Richard Fox (right) before handing it over to the Upper Turasha WRUA members (seen behind). PHOTO: WWF-Naivasha staff

The payments are the second for an environmental services scheme at the upper catchment area of the Malewa River. The first payment in May 2010 was of US$10,000 from the Lake Naivasha Water Resource Users Association (LANAWRUA) to 470 farmers in the catchment.

LANAWRUA, which represents 23 member commercial farms around Lake Naivasha, is composed of the Lake Naivasha Growers Group (LNGG) and the Lake Naivasha Riparian Association (LNRA).

At this year’s event, LANAWRUA presented two cheques to the Upper Turasha-Kinja and the Wanjohi Water Resource User Associations (WRUAs). The two WRUAs represent the 504 farmers.

Wanjohi WRUA received 438, 815 Kenya Shillings (US$4,903) while Upper Turasha WRUA received 360,909 Kenya Shillings (US$4,033). The upstream WRUAs are located in the Wanjohi  and Turasha sub-catchments of the Malewa River, which flows into Lake Naivasha from the western foothills of the Aberdare Mountains.

Lake Naivasha is crucial for Kenya’s horticulture and flower production, for geothermal power generation and for tourism around the lake and Nakuru town.
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Can payments for ecosystem services (PES) – including revenues from projects focused on reducing emissions from degradation and deforestation (REDD+) – create new incentives for sustainable land use management in Africa? What are the opportunities? And what risks exist, for whom?

A view of the city of Nairobi.

These questions, and more, will be at the core of a workshop, jointly offered by the World Agroforestry Center and the international Katoomba Group with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The workshop on Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) and Reducing Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation (REDD+) runs from 8 to 9 August 2011. Participants will include policy makers, private sector stakeholders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Cameroon, Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.  The content will focus on providing participants with an introduction to PES and REDD+, a set of guidelines for selecting the most promising PES and REDD+ sites, and an overview of how PES can be implemented.

The second workshop, scheduled for 10 to 12 August 2011, and also jointly offered by the World Agroforestry Center and the international Katoomba Group, will train project implementers (mainly NGOs) from Kenya and Uganda on social impact assessment in the design and implementation of PES projects.

We will be posting regular updates on the PRESA website as the event draws closer.

UPDATE – 22 August 2011: Presentations from the workshop are now online.

Please click here for presentations from the PES and REDD workshop.

Click here for presentations from the social impact assessment workshop.

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The UK Department for International Development (DFID) is seeking to recruit leading scientists, academics and researchers in various fields of natural and social sciences to serve as Senior Research Fellows. Their work will be to undertake specific tasks to be agreed in the design and execution of research programmes. Experts and researchers in the private sector and non-governmental organisations are encouraged to apply. For more details, click here.

Still from the United Kingdom, Bangor University is offering ten fully-funded scholarship grants for a Masters of Science in Forestry through distance learning. The scholarships are currently available for entrants in September 2011. Applicants may be nationals of: Bangladesh, Botswana, Cameroon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Get the details by clicking here.

Meanwhile, the United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) is issuing a call for papers for an international conference that it wishes to organize. The goal of the conference is to highlight new research and community engagement on sustainable natural resource management and use. The conference will be held on 5 – 8 December 2011 at Accra, Ghana. The deadline for submitting abstracts is 31 July 2011. Download the PDF (only 65KB) for instructions.

Over 120 African and Asian government negotiators, land managers, representatives of non-government organizations and climate change scientists are meeting this month at regional workshops in Cameroon and Vietnam to enhance their skills and understanding of the REDD+ implementation process.

Participants at a previous workshop organized by IISD and ASB, held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2009.

The workshops are hosted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Alternatives to Slash and Burn Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins (ASB).

REDD+ after Cancun: moving from negotiation to implementation is the theme of the two-and-a-half day workshops to be held in Douala on May 10 – 12 and Hanoi on May 18 – 20, 2011. They offer a series of expert presentations and in-depth discussions about the REDD+ process.

REDD+ is a climate change mitigation mechanism under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It goes beyond reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) to encompass sustainable management of forests, conservation and enhancement of carbon sinks in developing countries.

The 2010 Cancun agreements emphasized the need for nationally driven plans for effective implementation of REDD+. Given the complexity of the rapidly evolving subject, decision makers and key stakeholders need to be well equipped with the knowledge and skills required to formulate national strategies to ensure success of REDD+.

Click here for more on these workshops.

Trees growing on farms will be essential to future development. As the number of trees in forests is declining every year, the number of trees on farms is increasing.

Trees grown on homestead farms, in woodlots and on communal lands are an important source of wood and other products. PHOTO: PRESA

Marking the launch of the International Year of Forest by the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF9) in New York, Dennis Garrity, the Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre, highlighted the importance of mixing trees with agriculture, the practice known as agroforestry.

“Over a billion hectares of agricultural land, almost half of the world’s farmland, have more than 10 percent of their area occupied by trees,” said Garrity, “and 160 million hectares have more than 50 percent tree cover.”

Growing trees on farms can provide farmers with food, income, fodder and medicines, as well as enriching the soil and conserving water. As natural vegetation and forests are cleared for agriculture and other types of development, the benefits that trees provide are best sustained by integrating them into agriculturally productive landscapes.
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