The Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve REDD Project

Super-­‐acceptance of alternative livelihood options. Whiletheoretically a concern, this form of leakage is realistically a non-­issuewith projects that displace oil palm plantations. Palm oilcompanies prefer to hire migrant workers, and plantationdevelopment under the ‘without project’ scenario often leads toan influx of people into the region that even the most successfulof livelihoods-­‐promoting programs under the ‘with project’scenario could never hope to equal.Life-­‐cycle emissions shifting. While relevant, this form of leakageis likely insignificant relative to other leakage concerns and toospeculative to calculate ex-­‐ante. It will be monitored over time,and project GHG benefits adjusted accordingly.Positive Leakage AnalysisActivity shifting. Under the project’s GHG accountingmethodology, a deduction from expected climate benefits ismade for carbon that would have been sequestered in oil palmplantations under the ‘without project’ scenario. Projectproponents will negotiate with displaced companies to developland outside the Project Area that has already been deforested,in which case the sequestered carbon deductions should arguablybe cancelled as the carbon benefits will still accrue under the‘with project’ scenario.Ecological. The Rimba Raya Project Area was chosen specificallyfor its proximity to Tanjung Puting National Park. The projectboundaries and license class were selected specifically for theirprotective functions with respect to the park. Before projectcommencement, palm oil companies had already succeeded inpressuring the government into redesignating land traditionallywithin the Park boundaries for conversion to palm oil, and one oilpalm company in the north of the Seruyan buffer region hadalready encroached its boundaries and converted land formerlyinside the Park to oil palm plantation. Project proponents, byrescuing the buffer region, have cut off access to Park boundariesand removed future threats to this portion of the park. To theextent that this positive leakage can be quantified using the samedata and methodology applied to GHG accounting within theProject Area, these avoided emissions should be included in theproject’s carbon benefits by deducting the appropriate number ofcredits from the project’s leakage buffer.Leakage Accounting MethodologyLeakage represents the increase in GHG emissions by sourcesthat occur outside the project boundary that are measureableand attributable to the project activity. Leakage is assumed tooccur as a result of economic activity displacement (e.g. shiftingpattern of oil palm conversion) and it is this displaced activity thatwill be monitored and accounted in order to adjust net GHGemissions avoided by the project.To calculate leakage from the displacement of activity, adetermination must first be made as to whether ‘without project’activities have shifted outside the project area. Under thefollowing conditions, a determination of no displacement can bemade:Without project activities are halted and no displacementtakes place due to project leakage mitigation activities;Without project activities were planned by centralizedgovernment entities on government-­‐owned and operatedland;223