View/Open - Sokoine University of Agriculture

wonder how these experts would value biodiversity up against carbon storagecapabilities. Regardless of the technical aspects of carbon, local communities will anyways continue to value a tree for its practical values, not for its ability to store carbon.The carbon thus becomes a technical issue, which is difficult to grasp for many.In addition, an output-based approach to REDD+ is likely to represent highertransaction costs as it requires verifying of the conditions of each local forest that ismanaged. With many small forests areas the transaction costs are likely to be quitehigh. By establishing a number of different village forest reserves this is exactly whathappens. Another concern is the type of forest included under REDD+. Since it isperformance based, and thus requires verifiable measures, it compensates the forestmanager in exact carbon stored. Most of Kilosa´s forests consist of MiomboWoodland, which hold much less carbon than for example rainforests.In this regard, it can be viewed that under a REDD Resource Regime the attributes ofthe forest is perhaps even more important than under previous regimes, where typeand state of the forest resource has a direct bearing on the amount of paymentreceived.REDD and the performance based approach demands quite extinctive Monitoring,Reporting and Verification (MRV) measures where the forests in question will haveto be assessed twice during the project cycle. A danger is if it takes too long beforepeople start receiving REDD+ funds. If so, people could start losing their patience.The ability to enforce the rules made during the PFRA is another concern. In Lunenzi,people mentioned this and expressed their worries about the VNRC only having 15members (the number set by the project) and that this would make it difficult tomanage and patrol the extensive forest area. In addition, when working with ruralcommunities one has to bear in mind that these people have a range of other things todo. Forest management will thus be prioritized after basic needs such as food andagriculture.When carrying out MRV, only the PFM forest from its established boundaries will bemeasured and included into the project. This brings us to some core concerns in termsof REDD and its ability to hold carbon. Following the PFM guidelines,TFCG/MJUMITA help communities to establish boundaries and demarcate what isforest and what is not. Such boundaries are not decided by the villagers themselves.263