Considerations for mapping reforested land with smallholder farmers
Part 2 — written by Lottie Laken
With global temperatures having a 50:50 chance of reaching 1.5c of warming in the next five years, the need to mitigate climate change is a paramount concern. While a range of engineered and nature-based solutions have been proposed, one of the biggest opportunities lies with the 500 million family farmers across the globe. Trees have been hailed as the best carbon capture technology in the world. Yet forests are being lost due to agriculture and commodity-driven deforestation. If only farmers can improve their livelihoods by growing trees, they could become part of the solution for wide-scale forest restoration and climate change mitigation.
Therein lies the premise of smallholder forest carbon removal projects. Smallholder farmers partner with local organizations to grow trees on their land. The trees that are planted sequester carbon over time, and in return, farmers receive payments from the sale of carbon credits. There are further co-benefits, such as improved biodiversity and long-term value for farmers in the form of timber and non-timber forest products. While it seems simple in theory, reporting for carbon finance is a complex exercise, and it all begins at the parcel mapping stage — before any trees have even been planted.
What does it mean to map a parcel and why is it important?
But first things first: what is a parcel, and what does it mean to map one?
A parcel is an area of land designated for a particular purpose, such as reforestation. A farmer can enter one or more parcels into a reforestation program, while continuing to use the rest of their land for existing agricultural practices. Mapping a parcel means tracing the perimeter of the land that is to be reforested. Often, this is contiguous to land used for other purposes, or owned by other parties. In the absence of obvious boundaries, it is necessary to map the perimeter to delineate exactly where trees will be grown.
Parcel mapping is of central importance to a carbon removal project, as only once this exercise has been done can the parcel’s carbon baseline and carbon forecast be calculated. The baseline is the amount of carbon that would be sequestered if things remained exactly as they were. The forecast is how much carbon will be sequestered because of the project intervention, which is typically measured over 20+ years, depending on the project’s crediting period. With these calculations, it is possible to quantify the carbon issuance from that parcel, which is then reported to a carbon standard.
Going forward, the parcel map demarcates where project implementers need to measure tree growth. The parcel’s progress can then be assessed against the carbon baseline, verifying that the intervention is creating impacts which would not otherwise have been achieved. In the world of forest carbon removals, this is known as ‘additionality’.
Considerations when mapping smallholder carbon projects
To quantify carbon and measure the additionality of a project, it is crucial that parcels are mapped accurately. This is the starting point from which everything else flows. If the same area of land is counted twice, or an adjacent forest is accidentally included, it will skew the data and result in double counting. This is highly consequential, as the carbon offsets reported by the project intervention will be completely erroneous.
Partnering with smallholder farmers creates further challenges when it comes to accuracy. For one thing, parcels are typically located in remote areas. When mapping with a GPS device, the GPS signal can “bounce” or suddenly jump away from its previous location. Typically, this is due to a loss of satellite signal, and it can throw mapping activities off course. Also, due to the very nature of a smallholder farm, the parcels are often small in size. This can be an issue because GPS accuracy is a fixed random thing and errors tend to average out, meaning smaller parcels have more errors. There can be operational challenges on the ground too, as technicians may come across obstacles such as a house or river while mapping.
A technology platform designed for smallholder carbon projects
These considerations make mapping parcels in smallholder carbon projects particularly challenging. At Taking Root, we have harnessed the power of technology to devise a solution. The result is a technology platform — including a mobile app and a web app — that is specifically designed to complement smallholder carbon removal projects. The mobile app is used for activities on the ground such as parcel mapping and monitoring tree growth. The data collected via the mobile app is integrated with our web app to quantify carbon and measure parcel performance. This makes it easy to report traceable and transparent carbon removals to a carbon standard. Various carbon standards exist, but Taking Root’s technology is informed by science-based methodologies that are approved by Plan Vivo. This paved the way for Taking Root’s partnership with Ecotrust, a Ugandan project developer, whose Trees for Global Benefits program is a certified Plan Vivo project.
Thanks to a pilot project facilitated by Frontier Technology Livestreaming and funded by FCDO, Ecotrust recently tested Taking Root’s technology platform when mapping new parcels entering the project. In particular, Ecotrust wanted to see whether digital parcel mapping would streamline operations and make reporting to Plan Vivo more robust. The outcome was a resounding success — so much so that a second sprint was conducted, during which mapping activities were expanded from two to 14 regions across Uganda. Mapping took place across two different management units, rather than just one. A management unit is also called a planting design, and is the design of how trees are planted. While the first sprint had focused solely on interspersed planting designs, the second included mixed dispersed interplanting designs and mixed species woodlots.
By expanding the regions and project management units, Ecotrust wanted to test the concept of digital parcel mapping at scale. Mapping hundreds, if not thousands of parcels can be time-consuming. In using Taking Root’s technology, the project hoped to save time, centralize information, and have the data needed to showcase their impact to key stakeholders. For the second sprint, Ecotrust also requested the ability to digitally assign multiple technicians to a farmer.
How Taking Root’s technology platform improves efficiency and rigour
Using Taking Root’s approach, 12 Ecotrust technicians mapped 1,289 parcels, totalling 809ha across 39 different communities. As requested, multiple technicians could be digitally assigned to one farmer through Taking Root’s platform, allowing mapping responsibilities to be shared. This improved operational efficiencies for Ecotrust, who previously could only assign one technician to a farmer, with assignments based on region. This resulted in logistical challenges in cases where a farmer owned multiple parcels in different locations.
On each occasion, technicians walked the perimeter of a parcel with the Taking Root app open on a mobile phone. The decision to leverage mobile phones was intentional as they are more accessible than specialist GPS equipment. The app automatically drops a pin every two seconds, leaving a “trail” so users can see what they’ve traced. Using GPS coordinates, the app then creates a polygon representing the parcel boundary. This proved less time-consuming than Ecotrust’s method, which involves using GPS waypoints and manually linking it to the farmer’s information in a separate database. Creating polygons in this way is also more accurate as it better reflects the reality of the parcel, in turn making it more equitable for farmers whose contracts are linked to the number of hectares being restored.
As Ecotrust partners with farmers in rural Uganda, GPS bounce could have been a concern. However, algorithms built into Taking Root’s technology platform rectify GPS errors encountered while mapping parcels. Our standard operating procedure tells technicians what to do if they come across an obstacle such as a river so it can be safely navigated, without compromising the integrity of the data. Once a technician finishes mapping, they can also see the polygon straightaway, meaning they can re-trace the parcel if they notice discrepancies. The size of the parcel can then be estimated instantly offline so that technicians can complete the necessary documentation with the farmer, preventing the need for a subsequent visit.
Once the perimeter of a parcel is mapped and assigned its project management unit, it is possible to forecast the carbon that will be sequestered based on the project’s carbon models set out in its Project Design Document. All in all, this makes the process of parcel mapping and carbon quantification incredibly efficient. Importantly, it also requires minimal training to use, allowing parcel mapping to be completed by a range of users — including those without any previous forestry expertise.
When mapping activities are uploaded to Taking Root’s technology platform, it triggers a cycle of processing, reporting, and reviewing. Some of this is done through technology, and some of it is done through human processes. Various metrics are checked, including overlapping parcels. This added layer of rigour is built into our approach to guarantee accuracy and prevent errors such as double counting. Where small mistakes are identified, they can be fixed directly on the database. Otherwise, the parcel is escalated for a visual inspection and re-mapped where necessary. Where overlapping occurred due to an obstacle that could not be avoided, Ecotrust reported that returning to re-map that parcel would be redundant, as the same issue would likely arise again. This has prompted Taking Root to investigate a function that allows such issues to be addressed via the back-end of our technology platform.
The only other modification required to Taking Root’s approach derived from the size of the parcels being mapped with Ecotrust, which ranged from 0.1ha to 6ha. Taking Root’s technology requires a minimum parcel size in order to generate sampling plots for monitoring. A census approach is needed when mapping parcels below 0.5ha, which is when all the trees in a parcel are measured, rather than a sample. This is something we are working to implement. In the meantime, a blended approach can be adopted where parcels that are too small can be measured by Ecotrust technicians outside of the technology, allowing the farmers to which they belong to participate in the program.
Creating robust forest carbon removals
In using Taking Root’s technology, Ecotrust reported greater efficiencies and accuracy when mapping parcels, thereby improving the quality and transparency of their reforestation outcomes. The multiple assignment feature has made operational planning easier for Ecotrust’s program administrators who can now bulk assign multiple technicians to a farmer who has parcels across multiple regions. Given Ecotrust’s model where technician teams are assigned based on region, multiple technician assignment means multiple technicians can access a parcel and add or edit data on the Taking Root mobile app. Digitizing technician assignment has also enabled Ecotrust’s program managers to better visualize technician workload and evaluate performance against targets.
Partnering with Ecotrust has been a valuable exercise for Taking Root too. Mapping parcels at scale and across different planting designs during the second sprint revealed the need for a modified approach when mapping small parcels and added functionality to correct for overlaps. Mapping parcels and quantifying carbon is incredibly complicated. Over the years, we have learned the challenges of mapping smallholder carbon projects at scale and have adapted our technology to overcome them. Now, we are confident of our technology’s ability to improve operational efficiencies and build rigour into the impacts that are created. Yet we are always looking to build upon our platform, and we welcome learning opportunities so that we can further develop our processes.
Moving forward, we look to partner with similar organisations that are experienced in growing trees with smallholder farmers, have capacity on the ground to grow trees, and are willing to adopt Taking Root’s approach to creating carbon removals. We also look for high growth potential to reach as many smallholder farmers and grow as many trees as possible. Importantly, they must also align with our theory of change, which is that the world’s forests will only be restored if people can improve their livelihoods by growing trees. We look forward to developing such partnerships as we continue our efforts to accelerate the restoration of the world’s forests.
