Conservation for community

Loru, Vanuatu

By Nakau

February 28^th, 2024

A walk around Khole village in Vanuatu’s Santo Island reveals what income from forest carbon project means for daily lives — and how benefits from conservation reach far beyond protecting forests.

It’s a typical Santo hot and sunny day in Khole village and Rose Moses is standing in the doorway to her home. “You can come inside,” she says, smile wide and welcoming. “Come, come,” she gestures.

Just inside the door, is a little nook where shelves hold essentials including canned fish, tomatoes and tuna, noodles and pasta. There are few treats for the kids. And there is oil, rice and toiletries.

This is Rose’s shop — a small business she set up with carbon income from the Loru Forest Carbon Project. At night the shop is lit by a lantern above the door connected to a shared village solar panel.

“How did I start my small shop?” asks Rose. “When we got money from the [Loru carbon] project some money was shared with my family and I went to town and bought some products to sell." This was her starting capital and she now runs the shop on an ongoing basis to help her family.

Income from carbon credits has given many families in Khole village a way to meet their basic needs. Things we all seek in one way or another. Water tanks for clean drinking water. A home and solar-powered electricity to light it. Capital to start a small business. Or enough to pay for school fees, uniforms and education for children: a universal child right but often a challenge for families to afford in Vanuatu. As Rose says:

“[Carbon income] helped me send my children to school, helped me continue the shop and helped my son build a house ... I’m very happy.”

Indigenous-led forest carbon projects with integrity are always about protecting ecosystems: forests, rivers, plants and animals.

But in a world where one-quarter of land is owned, managed, used or occupied by Indigenous Peoples*, caring for nature is inseparable from the need to support the people who also depend on that natural environment. (*Source: UNEP)

Benefits from carbon projects must always be shared fairly within a community and the Loru project has a strong livelihood focus which is achieved through generating employment for forest rangers, access to thriving food gardens and income opportunities that benefit everyone.

There are real, visible signs of how carbon income is making lives easier right across Khole village, and often for women who hold much of the family care needs.

As we walk from house to house, more stories emerge of things that have improved. It’s evident everyone is in this together, supporting each other and collectively making decisions about which families to support next.

Losaline Rii shows us her house-in-progress. She explains she used her share of the credit money to buy sand to build her home, as well as for a water tank and school fees.

“I have three children, and so here there will be more room for everyone,” Losaline explains. She is already using the skeleton of her new home for cooking and family gatherings during the day.

Next door, Rachel Ser proudly shows us her water tank. Like many others in Khole village, this was a priority for her family when they received income from the sale of carbon credits.

Khole village has always had water problems. There is no river nearby, so water tanks have really helped the village access clean water year-round. As Vanuatu faces increasing periods of drought and unpredictable weather, collecting and storing rainwater when possible is critical for surviving drier times.

“When the project started, we were unsure of the outcomes,” says another resident, Janice Fred. “But now you can see we have been able to build our houses, buy water tanks and pay school fees for the children. It benefits the individual and community. And it is helping repair and build the nakamal (community hall) for everyone to use.”

The Loru Forest Project is owned and managed by Serthiac — a family business linked to the Serakar Clan who are the customary owners of the forest. One of the founding members, Waraker Ser (below) explains they named the business Serthiac because it means “all the family working together”, ‘thiac’ meaning ‘together’ in their Indigenous language.

The Serakar Clan reaches wide. It includes more than 50 people living in Khole and the project is not confined to only members of the clan. They have found ways to include everyone who lives in the village, including through paid forest work in the Loru Conservation Area.

Toli Dan is also a founding member of the Loru project. She says: “All the women in our community — we call all the women Mama’s — they benefit from the protected area as well because they’ve been cutting [invasive species] merremia in the protected area. This gives some money from carbon credits to the women in Khole community.”

Women are on the Serthiac Board, Finance Committee and the Land Management Committee, and they have a strong say in how the income is managed fairly to meet everyone’s needs.

“If anybody needs any money from Serthiac, the board must approve and then finance committee arranges it. For example, if some of the women need some money, they go to work and then the finance committee arranges payment,” says Toli.

“In my opinion, a good carbon credit is something that really helps us financially and gives us fresh air, gives us forests and makes the forest really beautiful.”

Like others, Toli spends a lot of time in the agro-forestry plots near the Loru Conservation Area. This is where Serthiac and others grow their vegetables underneath the new trees planted to one day expand the forest. She explains they place new agro-forestry plots close to the established forest in the areas that are full of weeds.

“These plots allow us to manage weeds, protect the forest, grow food and earn money at the same time. Now we are selling carbon and receive our share from the carbon, we feel it really motivates us to focus on working in the conservation area,” she says.

For more than a decade, the Loru Forest Carbon Project has embedded the connection between conservation and community resilience in the social fabric of the entire Khole village community.

The project has contributed to the regeneration of the Loru forest and enriched biodiversity with birds, coconut crabs and other wildlife returning to the forest. A healthy forest also means the community is supported with resources because the forest area is likely to bounce back quickly after extreme weather events.

As we’re settling into the village in the soft afternoon light, Rachel Ser (below) mentions quietly that they would like the project to expand. In addition to carbon income activities, there is so much volunteer time the community put into managing the forest site: clearing weeds and tending to the agro-forestry plots and food gardens.

“Kids go clear the meremia too, it’s something they are learning about and what they know from a young age,” she says. “We have a fun time, we get up really early and go up to the forest and work together all morning and then have lunch in the forest.”

“But if we had more money for rangers, more people would love to do even more conservation work. More families could be paid for their conservation work. We don’t think this work stops as it is now.”

The Loru Forest Carbon Project is a partnership between Serthiac, Live and Learn Vanuatu, Live and Learn Environmental Education and Nakau. Learn more about the project here.