As part of the CRxN project, Nakau and Live & Learn developed an in-depth site screening tool that identifies potential sites and helps eliminate risks associated with carbon projects so they can have the best outcomes for communities, nature and climate.  

We recently tested it out in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands to help select potential forest carbon project sites.  

The site screening tool guides the process through a list of questions designed to assess the eligibility and suitability of a site – important criteria for understanding how feasible and financially viable a project will be.   

Eligibility refers to the tight parameters set by a carbon Standard, in our case Plan Vivo. This is critical because we cannot run a carbon project if we don’t meet Standard requirements. These criteria delve into threats to a forest from logging, land-clearing and agriculture. Learnings from the site selection process also need to be supported by geospatial and other mapping data that demonstrates evidence of the forest threat over time, including country forest loss assessments.  

Many high-value forests worthy of conservation may not be eligible for forest carbon projects, which focus on deforestation and degradation. Even for eligible sites, the type of threat, and the scale and characteristics of the threat can have a big impact on the final feasibility of a project — sometimes more so than the quality of the forest threatened.  

The site screening tool helps project developers be totally clear about the threat to a forest. Understanding this is critical for two key reasons: 

1. So communities are aware of what they are engaging in, why their forest is or is not eligible for a carbon project, and exactly what a carbon project will support them to achieve. 

2. To avoid overestimating the credit volumes produced by either over emphasising the baseline threat, or the real impact of the project, known as additionality. We calculate our credits to ensure they are real and additional — they must represent actual carbon emissions reductions to make for high integrity projects.  

Questions that seek to understand existing kastom and traditional conservation approaches help identify how knowledge is already being used in a potential project site, and how building on this can make a carbon project more locally relevant and culturally significant for people.  

Listen for nuances in the way questions are answered where customary processes may use a different approach to conflict resolution or land use. Open questions that help understand all the angles also help test assumptions and spotlight differences between villages and communities in a similar country context. 

At Nakau and Live & Learn, we also ensure kastom (custom) is valued within consultation processes and decision-making, and included in the project design. If there is a custom process for conservation or data collection, we will try and use this too rather than relying on a western process. In Vanuatu, kastom tabu tree leaf signs are traditionally used to mark no-go areas. These markers are now being adapted by landowners in carbon projects, like the Loru Conservation Project which has a wider Tabu over the forest to support the legal protection and offer greater cultural significance for the community. This is a decision suggested and led by the community.   

Carbon projects we develop ensure benefits are shared fairly within a community — it’s how the Nakau Methodology is designed. But we also need to listen to all voices when selecting a site, and ensure women, people with disabilities and other marginalised groups can have a voice and a role in the project from the beginning.  

The site selection tool and feasibility questions investigate how women and others are involved in a community, how they access and use resources, and if they have decision-making power. The tool acknowledges the Pacific context has a complicated and unique social structure and explores ways to leverage these structures to increase involvement of women and others who may not always have a decision-making role. Finding critical entry points to this work is important and to remain sensitive to local culture while making sure the carbon project does not contribute to disadvantages experienced by women and others in a community.