Designed by the French NGO GoodPlanet, funded by the airline Air France and put in place on the ground by the WWF, the “holistic conservation programme for forest” is a project that is symptomatic of what can be achieved through Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD).

Its main aim is to limit deforestation and restore some particularly badly hit areas, which also works to the benefit of protecting biodiversity, soils and water resources. The project is being put in place over a total area of 515,000 hectares, of which 390,000 are in wet forest and 125,000 in coniferous forest with an estimated carbon capture potential in the order of 60-70 million tonnes of CO ₂. It aims to maintain this stock by reducing the actual rate of deforestation (assessed at being 0.55%). It envisages restoring 20,000 hectares of degraded forest countryside, to reforest 5,000 hectares and to create protected areas over more than 265,000 hectares of wet forest and about 85,000 hectares of dry forest.

INVOLVING LOCAL POPULATION

The project, managed on the ground by the WWF, is based on the active participation of local people and aims to help them manage the forest in a sustainable and responsible way by transferring the management of natural resources and putting in place alternative methods of cultivation. It is about raising the awareness of countryside people living close to forests about the importance of their conservation; analysing with them the appropriate management methods for future protected areas and training them for this purpose; beginning procedures to ring fence these areas, make their existence official and, over time, transfer their management – via management contracts – to local communities. Thus, in the case of the active Ampitambe restoration site, this is being translated into a study, with the local community, of the state of the land, the soil and the species to be taken into account, the selection and preparation of plants and, finally, plantation and maintenance of the site.

RECORDING CARBON STORAGE

The scientific element, carried out by the team from GoodPlanet, aims to improve knowledge about a verifiable and effective measurement of activities that are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop tools to keep a record of the forests’ carbon storage potential. For this purpose, the team is using both ‘on the spot’ work (inventory and identification of plots of land) as well as the most advanced techniques, such as laboratory analysis, very high resolution satellite images (Spot Image) and spectography, the use of advanced software to process satellite images, and the production and use of computer-generated images. The aim is to develop and fine-tune scientific carbon record-keeping tools, to test and assess the first set of ‘green standards’ that the WWF is in the middle of developing for projects of this kind, to contribute to the development of Madagascar’s REDD policy and, finally, to bring scientific added value to the ongoing international discussions.

Air France involved

Asked to participate by Yann-Arthus Bertrand, the founder-president of GoodPlanet and the initiator of the project, Air France was attracted by the “holistic” aspect of the project, says Pierre Caussade, its director for the environment and sustainable development. First of all, he explains, it is responding, through its human side, to Air France’s tradition of patronage. Secondly, it fits neatly into the company’s ‘climate plan’, through which it aims to reduce its carbon footprint. Thirdly, the scientific research element was a particularly attractive “bonus”. With or without the association, for its implementation on the ground, GoodPlanet has the skills and seriousness of purpose with as prestigious and experienced an organisation as the WWF. Air France has, therefore, made a commitment to a three-way partnership and invested five million euro over three years, thereby becoming the project’s only financial backer.

Is there a hidden agenda? Is the company acting well ahead of time to be able, when it is forced to join the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) in 2012, to benefit from additional ‘carbon credits’? No, Caussade stresses. By signing the partnership agreement, Air France has made a commitment, in black and white, never to ask for carbon credits for this action, clearly showing its total commitment to the fight against climate change.