Carbon Monitoring for TerraFund Projects

As part of the Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) process, TerraFund collects data on all existing projects through the TerraMatch platform. This framework was created to track the impact of the ongoing restoration work, but the monitoring team is in the process of identifying new ways to understand the extent of the impact. You can learn more about the MRV framework by reviewing this article. Working with partners, the TerraFund team is exploring ways of understanding and tracking the carbon impact of restoration projects. 

TerraFund strives to prove that locally led, small-scale restoration efforts can meaningfully contribute to climate change mitigation by sequestering carbon. Our ultimate goal is to standardize the measurement and verification of carbon from trees, supporting a robust carbon market and providing new entry points for communities and entrepreneurs to join a restoration sector of the economy. To this end, have begun a partnership with Michigan State University’s Global Observatory for Ecosystem Services, an expert in remote sensing measurement and monitoring of carbon, to undertake research that identifies project characteristics that lead to carbon sequestration and the types of restoration projects that could be a good fit for the carbon market. 

To date, we have collected field data from 23 restoration champions to form a baseline of carbon stocks at the start of their projects, creating a per-tree carbon map for each project (see images below). In 2024, we will work on a landscape-scale approach, aiming to show the impact of these projects across the entire region.

Sadhana, a TerraFund project in Kenya, outlined in red. Blue polygons represent tree crowns identified via remote sensing. Darker blue indicates higher carbon stock.

Fairtree, a TerraFund project in Kenya, outlined in purple. Blue polygons represent tree crowns identified via remote sensing. Darker blue indicates more carbon stock. Each red ¼ ha grid represents carbon stocks, with darker red indicating more carbon stock.

Partners:

Michigan State University's Global Observatory for Ecosystem Services

Led by David Skole, the Global Observatory for Ecosystem Services resides in MSU’s Forestry Department, and focuses on understanding land cover and land use change, earth observations and information technology, and forest carbon measurement and monitoring. Their work with remote sensing and earth observation systems aims to monitor the global environment and bring carbon mitigation interventions to scale. The MSU team is developing the Carbon indicator for TerraFund in partnership with WRI’s monitoring team, and completed data collection field work from June 2023 through March 2024 at several selected TerraFund projects.

Tier 2 Indicators: Selected, Relevant Projects

As part of the TerraFund MRV Framework, all projects are expected to report on Tier 1 Indicators, but there are a series of indicators that are non-mandatory, some of which are currently in development. Indicator 8, which is used to track the carbon sequestered by land restoration projects, is one of the optional Tier 2 Indicators. You can find the description of this indicator below:

Indicator 8: Carbon Sequestered

Indicator 8.1: Metric tons of CO2 stored by project at Year 0 and Year 6, projected carbon stored at Year 30, and change in carbon stored from Year 0-6:

• Description: In partnership with Michigan State University’s (MSU) Global Observatory for Ecosystem Services, a small group of restoration champions were invited to participate in a carbon field data collection activity. These 23 projects (10 in Kenya, 7 in Ghana, 4 in Rwanda and 2 in Malawi) were selected based on location, relationship with One Tree Planted partners, restoration strategy and geospatial boundary submission. The field data collected by MSU will be used to inform a remote sensing method to estimate carbon stored on those project’s sites at Year 0, and the method will be repeated to estimate carbon stored at Year 6. The MSU team will also predict carbon stored on those project sites at Year 30.
  • The result can be used for adaptive management. For example, if a project used the same methods in two sites but has different amounts of carbon storage across the project lifetime, this insight can be used to understand the contributing factors of carbon storage in the landscape.  
  • The result of the Year 30 projection can be used to identify projects and project types that result in high carbon storage and could potentially pursue a carbon crediting scheme.
• MSU will also be estimating carbon storage across the entirety of the three TerraFund landscapes at Year 0 and into the future. The result will be used to understand how all TerraFund projects are contributing to carbon storage and climate change mitigation on a larger scale and across each landscape.
• In the future, the methods used by MSU to estimate carbon stored on projects at Year 0, Year 6 and Year 30 will be used on all projects across the three landscapes, not just those included in the initial data collection.