Carbon Credit Payment Options for Agroforestry Projects in Africa

The potential of using carbon offset credits from agroforestry projects for farmers in developing areas has become more prevalent in both Clean Development Mechanism and voluntary carbon markets. Since the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, many international development organizations have been interested in using the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to help both mitigate CO2 emissions through agroforestry projects offsets and as a poverty reduction tool. Few organizations that have begun talking with farmers about planting trees for carbon offset credits have been able to tell the farmers how much money they would receive from their new tree growth or the costs they will incur in doing so. For this study, a whole farm budget toolkit was designed to help fill this gap and to help evaluate payment methods for carbon offset credits in agroforestry projects. This toolkit is intended to be used by development assistance organizations and farmers starting carbon credit programs. It gives a rough estimate of payments based on a farmer’s or group’s unique situation. For testing purposes, previous agroforestry projects were entered into the toolkit to evaluate the benefits accruing to farmers using data on carbon credit payment methods for two previous agroforestry projects in Africa. The toolkit was also field tested in Kenya with individual farmers and a farmers’ group.