Local Context

The Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF) is a unique subnational collaboration between 22 states and provinces from Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Spain, and the United States. The GCF seeks to advance jurisdictional programs designed to promote low emissions rural development and reduced emissions from deforestation and land use (REDD+) and link these activities with emerging greenhouse gas compliance regimes and other pay-for-performance opportunities.

GCF facilitates the exchange of experiences and lessons learned across leading states and provinces; synchronizes efforts across jurisdictions to develop policies and programs that provide realistic pathways to forestmaintaining rural development; supports processes for multi-stakeholder participation and engagement; and seeks financing for jurisdictional programs.

This Intitute Ecologica’s study  has been developed with the GCF Fund grants. The GCF Fund is a non-profit, nimble and transparent climate finance facility which was established by the GCF in 2011. The study aims to promote financial valuation for the maintenance and enhancement of forest carbon stocks that result in the reduction of GHG emissions from the land use-change and forestry project activities, which account for the majority of the Brazilian GHG emissions. The project took place in Tocantins, between February and May 2014.

Project Description

The project’s main goals were: to identify the potential of REDD+ mechanisms in the farms that were surveyed in the state
of Tocantins; to create a database with the surveyed properties; to organize workshops and courses for the dissemination of knowledge and experiences; and to improve the infrastructure for a Jurisdictional System of REDD+ in the state of Tocantins. In addition, the project represents an excellent opportunity for combining low carbon agriculture with REDD+ activities, providing a solid base to work with Jurisdictional REDD+ in Tocantins.

In order to achieve the objectives proposed, interviews with farmers located in several counties of the state of Tocantins were performed. The responses were analyzed in order to assess the situation of land use, deforestation agents, types of REDD+ projects that can be developed, and the potential for reduction of GHG emissions by the proposed mechanisms. These data were compiled in a report, resulting in a database of land use change. Furthermore, the GCF project created a database of 76 rural properties in Tocatins and conducted workshops and courses about REDD+ and the carbon market, which trained 125 people.

Files for Download

Project Report