is a not-for-profit company - Plan Vivo

Plan VivoImproving rural livelihoods, restoring and conserving ecosystemsOverviewPlan Vivo is a system for designing andoperating payments for ecosystem serviceprojects and schemes, targeted at developingcountries. Key participants in Plan Vivo projectsare small-scale farmers and forest dependentcommunities. They create sustainable landmanagement or living plans (plan vivos) thatcombine existing land uses with additionalactivities and improved practices, which lead tothe creation, restoration and protection ofindigenous forests and woodlands, as well asagroforestry.Plan Vivo projects are developed and managedby in-country project coordinators - usually localor national NGOs - who work with communitiesto apply the Plan Vivo System. The system isreally a framework for planning, managing andmonitoring project activities and the CO 2sequestration and reduction benefits that arisefrom those activities. The system incorporatesa set of standards (the Plan Vivo Standard) andguidelines, administrative processes, tools andtechnical models.The decisive trigger for project activities is apayment for ecosystem services (PES).Participants receive staged payments forcarrying out activities that generate ecosystemservices, quantified using carbon as a metric.However, project activities generate a range ofsocial benefits in parallel with ecosystemservices. Apart from sequestering andconserving carbon in terrestrial ecosystems,Plan Vivo projects develop rural capacity andthe resilience of poor communities by helping todiversify incomes, and by building financial,natural, human and social, and physical capital.It is vital that participation in project activitiesdoes not undermine subsistence agricultureand revenues from cash crops. On thecontrary, improved agricultural and land usepractices are germane to Plan Vivo, and suchactivities are promoted and encouraged.It can be helpful to think about Plan Vivo as ablend between a micro-finance and smallholderout-grower scheme. The out-grower concept isthat - instead of outsourcing the production ofcash crops, small-scale farmers are paid forecosystem services delivered through projectactivities. Payments for ecosystem services ina Plan Vivo project perform much the sameincentive function as micro-loans in a microfinancescheme. There are other similaritieswith micro-finance too: Plan Vivo is all aboutpromoting small-scale enterprise, marketlinkages and community empowerment;incentives are performance-linked; aggregationis the key to success; service agreements arestraightforward; and organized civil structuresare important.Some historyThe UK Department for InternationalDevelopment (DFID) originally funded andsupported the research and development of thefirst pilot project in Chiapas, Mexico, in 1994.That led to the first formulation of the Plan VivoSystem. It also set the tone for what hashappened in Plan Vivo since. It has beenground-up, context-driven, pragmatic andoriented around communities and small-scaleproducers, farmers and forest dwellers indeveloping countries. Almost everything thatinforms and has come out of Plan Vivo is theproduct of experience. That has meant tryingthings, taking risks, accepting the need fortrade-offs, making mistakes, muddling through,learning and refining approaches to what can1

work. Plan Vivo recognises that organicdevelopment is key to its success as a systemand standard.Today there are four operational Plan Vivoprojects that sell Plan Vivo Certificates, inMexico, Uganda, Mozambique and Tanzania.Several others are in various stages ofdevelopment, including two in Malawi and oneeach in Cameroon, Rwanda and Nicaragua.How are projects financed?Plan Vivo projects source funding for PESlargely by providing Plan Vivo Certificates tobuyers, who may buy Plan Vivo Certificates forvoluntary carbon offsetting, corporate socialresponsibility, or simply to support PES in anarea, or in respect of ecosystem services thatthey have an interest in supporting. ACertificate represents one tCO 2 e and a bundleof various other environmental and socialbenefits that are difficult to price on their own.Projects require some capital to cover upfrontdevelopment costs. Typically the initial capitalis from ODA sources, philanthropic donors,conservation groups or - in the case of theMozambique project, for example - privatecapital.Once they are established, projects need to beable to cover ongoing project managementcosts and provide incentives for producers toparticipate in project activities. In the earlyphases of a project, incentives come primarilyfrom direct payments for ecosystem servicesand other forms of project support, such astraining or access to community funds.As projects and sustainable land managementpractices become more established, sources ofincome diversify and the importance of theecosystem/carbon payments for householdsand communities will often recede.Environmental and social benefitsPlan Vivo strengthens capacity and buildsdifferent forms of capital through a variety ofmeans.Financial capital PES create opportunities toinvest in more productive and sustainable landuse systems, community enterprises andrevenue generating activities, through incomediversification (agricultural, timber and nontimberforest products), and through savingsfrom the provision of cheap and sustainablebio-energyNatural capital through biodiversitymaintenance, greater natural environmentalresilience, more balanced agricultural andagroforestry systems, watershed protection andmoisture retention especially important in areasprone to drought and risk of floods, soilstabilization and erosion control, increasedproductivity and the ability of lands to supportagriculture for longer periods, the provision ofshade for animals and cropsHuman and social capital through povertyreduction, livelihood improvements and higherstandards of living, increased resilience andability to adapt to climate change, knowledgesharing, transfer of skills, participatory planning,the strengthening of community structures andfinancial networks, reduced dependency on aidand government support, and by drawingattention to the importance of community andsmallholder land use rights and tenurePhysical capital through the mobilization oftools, equipment, seedlings and other thingswhich help to improve sustainable resourcemanagement capacityThe livelihood benefits of Plan Vivo projects arewell understood. The biodiversity benefits areoften overlooked and warrant special mention.Native trees are planted which are suitable forlocal wildlife. Projects help create and linkislands of biodiversity. They also providebuffer zones for local biodiversity hotspots byeasing pressures of encroachment andunsustainable fuel wood collection.2

Plan Vivo and PESThere are various ways to think about anddescribe payments for ecosystem services(PES). In the Plan Vivo framework, PES can beseen quite simply as a kind of subsidy orcompensation for actions that give rise toenvironmental services. The importance of theword actions cannot be over-emphasized;Plan Vivo is about mobilization and activities; itis about rewarding rural farmers andcommunities for successfully doing things theywould not ordinarily do, because of a lack offinancial wherewithal, capacity or support.Producers receive staged payments based ontheir actions and attainment of agreedperformance milestones.The metric of CO 2 is used as currency fortransacting PES partly because it is widelyrecognised, and can be understood andmonitored (relatively) easily by people on theground. It is a useful indicator of howsuccessful project actions are. Carbon servesas both a means and an end. It is an end as itrepresents and corresponds to a climatechange mitigation benefit. Carbon finance is ameans of getting money to peasant farmersand communities, maintaining biodiversity,restoring natural and managed (agricultural)ecosystems, improving rural livelihoods, andreinforcing the rights of people who are thestewards of forests and lands and whosesurvival depends directly on natural resources.Plan Vivo scalabilityOne of the great strengths of the Plan Vivo isits scalability, which is closely linked to the factthat the system is replicable, transferable andhelps achieve economic and informationefficiencies. Much like a micro-finance system,Plan Vivo thrives because it is able to efficientlymobilize and aggregate the enterprise andcorresponding environmental benefits ofthousands of producers. The systemstandardises and simplifies project operations,making them more efficient to administer,understand and communicate.Projects are based on systematized accountingprocesses both for carbon and themanagement of payments to producers. Theplan vivos (management plans) serve as thebasic building blocks for projects and are linkedto approved technical specifications(methodologies) that are used to calculatecarbon benefits. A Plan Vivo database providesa basic infrastructure for allocating fundsacross producers and for recording, managingand disseminating data from the monitoring ofproject activities. These administrativeprocesses, technical models and tools facilitatereplication and extension of project activities tonew areas.Project extension is also made considerablyeasier by information efficiencies that arise asproducers become a powerful driving force forcommunication, understanding and thetransmission of information. When producers ina particular area learn about and are able tosee the benefits of a project operating inanother area, they generally feel encouraged tobecome involved and more receptive tolearning and understanding how the systemworks.The Plan Vivo project in Mexico started with ahandful of families and has recruited over 700over the year. The Mozambique project hasgrown to include 1,350 producers since it wasinitiated in 2001. The producer recruitmentnumbers for the Plan Vivo project in Ugandaillustrate the sort of growth potential that ispossible in Plan Vivo projects:2003 30 new producers2004 54 new producers2006 18 new producers2007 34 new producers2008 268 new producers2009 100 new producersTotal 504 producers3

The Plan Vivo Foundation andBioClimate Research & DevelopmentThe Plan Vivo Foundation governs andoversees the development of the Plan VivoSystem and Standards. It reviews and registersprojects, and also assesses project monitoringdata in order to issue Plan Vivo Certificates.The Foundation also approves third-partyverifiers and coordinates project validation. Itdisseminates information and promotes andsupports the Plan Vivo System, Standard andprojects. The Foundation itself cannot getdirectly involved in project developmentbecause of its governance and certificationfunction.BR&D, a Scottish company, strives to facilitateknowledge transfer, increase communitycapacity and make project developmentaccessible and affordable for organisations indeveloping countries. In future BR&D may lookat helping develop routes to market for PlanVivo (Fairtrade) commodities and products.BioClimate Research & Development (BR&D)is a not-for-profit company mandated by thePlan Vivo Foundation to assist organisationsaround the world to develop Plan Vivo projects.For more information visit www.planvivo.orgPlan Vivo Foundation18B Liberton BraeTower Mains StudiosEdinburgh EH16 6AEUnited KingdomTel +44 (0)131 672 37824