Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) Lighthouses
To scale up high-quality Natural Climate Solutions (NCS), it has become mission-critical to build trust among different stakeholders. In recent years, concerns about the integrity of NCS credits have been raised repeatedly, focusing on measurement, additionality, leakage, permanence, baseline setting, verification and equitable benefit sharing. However, with more than 20 years of international efforts to generate and trade NCS credits, great strides have been made in addressing these issues.
The NCS Lighthouses build trust by highlighting NCS examples which also generate positive outcomes for nature and people. They elevate the successful human, community, business and environmental stories behind these initiatives and shine a light on what investing in best practice looks like on the ground. Read the summary report here.
The 2022 NCS Lighthouses
In order to ensure that NCS Lighthouses provide a true beacon for best practice, the NCS Lighthouses are selected based on screening criteria developed by an NCS Alliance Taskforce comprised of NGOs, businesses and solution providers, which have demonstrated alignment to the NCSA's quality principles for NCS credits, as presented within 'Natural Climate Solutions for Corporates'
Below are eight new NCS Lighthouses which demonstrate what investing into best practice looks like:
Carbon by Indigo - USA
Helping farmers in the USA adopt regenerative farming practices to produce carbon reductions & removals and connect with organizations integrating high-quality offsets in their long-term decarbonization and sustainability strategies.
More information here.
Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project – Kenya
Through dryland forest and endangered wildlife protection driven by extraordinary community sustainable development activities, this project in Kenya is estimated to avoid over 48 million metric tonnes of CO2e during its lifetime.
More information here.
Laguna Om – Mexico
Producing carbon credits that benefit not only the ecosystem, but also its inhabitants in the ejido (community) Laguna Om, in order to ensure the long-term conservation of tropical forests in this region of Mexico.
More information here.
Makame Savannah Project – Tanzania
Using REDD in Tanzania to conserve critical habitat for protected wildlife by collaborating with the Maasai communities to set up community land use plans that keep their cattle, themselves, and the ecosystem healthy.
More information here.
Nii Kaniti – Peru
Collaborating between seven indigenous communities in Peru’s Ucayali and Huanuco regions, building a thriving forest economy deep in the Amazon to conserve 127,000 hectares of critically threatened ancestral land.
More information here.
Northern Kenya Rangelands Project – Kenya
Removing and storing 50 million tons of CO2 over 30 years by implementing sustainable grazing management over nearly 2 million hectares of savannahs and grasslands in Kenya.
More information here.
Ntakata Mountains Project – Tanzania
Working with local farming communities in Tanzania to manage and use REDD carbon credits to fund the protection of important wildlife habitat and enhance connectivity in the Greater Mahale ecosystem.More information here.
Yaeda-Eyasi Landscape Project – Tanzania
Protecting the ancestral forests of the Hadza hunter-gatherers and Datooga pastoralists in Tanzania by securing their ownership of the natural resources and generating carbon revenue through forest protection, finances protection activities and community development.
More information here.
Below you can read about the original six NCS Lighthouses:
Conservation Coast - Guatemala
Bringing together hundreds of diverse landowners to protect more than 62,000 hectares of threatened tropical rainforest.
More information here.
Katingan Mentaya Project - Indonesia
Protecting peat swamp forest and investing into local businesses via the Voluntary Carbon Market since 2017.
More information here.
Luangwa Community Forests Project - Zambia
Protecting over 1 million hectares of forest, benefitting over 217,000 people through income generation and social services development.
More information here.
Mai Ndombe REDD+ - DRC
Partnering with the local community to protect 300,000 hectares of the world’s second-largest intact rainforest.
More information here.
Rimba Raya - Indonesia
Protecting one of the most highly endangered ecosystems in the world, developing livelihood programs for surrounding villages.
More information here.
Sumatra Merang Peatland Project - Indonesia
Restoring 22,934 hectares of peatland rainforest, improving livelihoods and promoting rural economic development.
More information here.
For further information
Events
Two launch events hearing directly from the project proponents on the stories behind their success. Watch the recording featuring Sumatra Merang, Katingan Mentaya and Luangwa Community Forests Project here. Watch the recording featuring the Conservation Coast, Rimba Raya and the Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project here.
Videos
- Watch 'Evidence of Hope' the story of community ownership and forest protection
- Landscape-scale carbon removal means new & sustained income for local communities and a boost to wildlife conservation
- Carbon credits provide critical finance that enables outstanding conservation and sustainable development in Peru
- This is how natural climate solutions are saving orangutans in Indonesia | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)
- Mangroves Can Help Us Fight Climate Change But Now We Need To Fight For Them | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)
- This forest in Indonesia is home to the world’s largest ‘avoided emissions’ project | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)
Related links
- Case Study Map - Nature4Climate : Nature4Climate
- Nature-based Solutions case studies (naturebasedsolutionsinitiative.org)
Disclaimer:
Inclusion of an NCS project or programme in the NCS Lighthouse Programme does not imply a recommendation to purchase, trade or retire credits associated with the Lighthouse. The NCS Alliance and its members take no responsibility for the purchase, trade or retirement of credits from these projects and programmes. Instead, it recommends that individuals, companies and other organisations procuring credits as part of their climate strategies conduct their own independent due diligence to validate the quality and environmental integrity of their purchases. The NCS Alliance secretariat in no way benefits financially or by other means from the selection.