Rewarding the Practice of Grazing in Vineyard Systems through Environmental Stewardship Projects
This is part two of a three-part series about the Environmental Stewardship initiative at Regen Network. In the first part, we described and contrasted the initiative with conventional payment for ecosystem services approaches. This second part highlights the first methodology and project developed as part of the Environmental Stewardship initiative. The third and final part will focus on how we think about the demand side of this initiative.
Introduction
The Environmental Stewardship initiative aims to foster holistic regenerative practices, enhancing our understanding through data collection on how these practices impact ecosystem function. We’ve designed methodologies under this initiative to be more user-friendly and cost-effective than traditional, complex measurement-based methods, like those used for outcome-based carbon credits. The fundamental concept driving the implementation of Environmental Stewardship methodologies is that, for certain environmental practices, sufficient evidence indicates they positively impact ecosystem function.
Credit Launch
Our first methodology under the Environmental Stewardship initiative promotes high-density, short-duration rotational sheep grazing in vineyard systems. This approach to managing vineyards improves ecosystem functioning by actively managing the soil and herbaceous cover in the vineyard understory. While the environmental benefits are inherent in the practice, we still gather and analyze data to refine our methods and deepen our understanding of the ecological advantages. However, rewards are calculated based on the practice rather than on these measured outcomes.
The unit for this methodology is the ‘kilo-sheep-hour.’ We calculate sheep-hours for each grazing event by multiplying the number of sheep in a paddock by the hours grazed, summing these across paddocks, and dividing by 1,000.
Ecological Benefits
Research and practical experience have demonstrated that integrating sheep grazing with appropriate ground cover planting yields numerous ecological benefits. For instance, a study by Kelsey Brewer (2023) highlighted increased soil carbon storage and nutrient availability in Northern California vineyards. Potential co-benefits vary depending on implementation and site-specific edaphic and climatic factors but generally include:
- Enhancing nutrient cycling and bioavailability during peak vegetation growth
- Increasing nutrient retention in dormant periods
- Reducing reliance on external inputs like pesticides and fertilizers
- Boosting soil microbial biomass and improving soil structure
- Enhancing soil carbon storage
- Reducing fire fuel loads, thus mitigating wildfire risks
- Creating additional economic avenues for sheep herders
The Necessity of This Approach
The current economic models fall short of supporting skilled shepherds, which is essential for sustaining targeted grazing practices in California. Community investment is vital to preserve these land stewardship practices. The vineyard sheep grazing credit offers a way to directly invest in the land and community benefits of integrated grazing systems. Grazing and herbivory have historically played an essential role in the ecology of California’s grasslands, which co-evolved with grazing animals for millions of years. Reintegrating grazing animals into these landscapes can yield abundant benefits for the soil and ecosystems. In the face of worsening drought, wildfires, and climate change, targeted grazing can significantly affect how we effectively steward California landscapes.
Methodology
In Northern California, vineyard grazing typically occurs in winter during vine dormancy. Shepherds meticulously record grazing data, including start and end times, sheep count, and forage height. The boundary of the paddock is also recorded by walking or driving around the perimeter of the paddock using a mobile phone digitizing app. Before and after time-stamped and geo-tagged photographs of the paddock are also required to provide additional evidence of a grazing event. Validated by third-party verification using satellite imagery, this data forms the basis for credit issuance.
Verification and Credit Issuance
Verification involves analyzing significant decreases in biomass and correlating these with documented grazing events. A vegetation index such as normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) can be used as a proxy for forage biomass. By graphing NDVI over time, there will be a sudden drop in NDVI value after a grazing event. This process, mostly automated using Google Earth Engine, ensures the credibility of the grazing data. At the end of image processing, a visual inspection of temporal NDVI graphs is done to confirm or deny that a claimed grazing event occurred. If it is difficult to verify that a specific grazing event occurred, then the benefit of the doubt goes to the shepherd, and that event is confirmed.
Once data is validated, credits are issued. A unique aspect of this methodology is how the revenue from credit sales is distributed. A data collection account will hold 15% of the revenue from credit sales, and the remaining credit revenue is split, with 35% going to the vineyard owner and 65% to the grazing operator.
Crediting Periods
We’ve established a one-year project duration for the initial phase of our methodology. This encompasses the annual crediting periods during which participants commit to maintaining the grazing practice. This concise timeframe allows us to reassess and refine our approach periodically. Looking ahead, we anticipate extending these durations, though they will remain shorter than the multi-decade spans typical in traditional ecosystem service payment models. Our rationale for shorter cycles lies in the agility they offer: they enable us to integrate new insights and technological advancements into our practices swiftly. A common critique is that such brevity might undermine the long-term ecological benefits. However, we believe this practice's inherent economic incentives and environmental benefits will encourage its sustained adoption, rendering restrictive long-term commitments unnecessary.
Pilot Project
The grazing methodology was piloted using data collected during the 2022–2023 grazing season at the Grgich Hills Estate winery in Rutherford, California, using the Kaos Sheep Outfit grazing operator from Lake County, California. The pilot project resulted in 785.7 kilo-sheep-hour credits being issued, which are available for purchase on the Regen Network Marketplace. Here, you will find all the details related to the methodology, including comments from expert reviewers and public comments, the project plan, the grazing monitoring report, and the verification report.
For the pilot project, RND personnel take on all the roles in creating a project. These roles include developing the project, verifying the monitoring data collected by the grazers, distributing the credits, and distributing revenue generated from the sale of those credits. In the future, most of these roles will be filled by individuals and groups outside of RND.
Looking Forward
As we move forward to promote this methodology and create new projects with other vineyards, we are also identifying individuals and organizations to support the different roles required to implement and manage methodologies and projects. The full description of the different roles can be found in the Regen Registry Handbook, but in summary, they include the following:
- Credit Class Admin: An individual, organization, or group of individuals/organizations that manages the rules and conditions necessary to issue credits under a Credit Class.
- Registry Agent (Issuer): The individual or organization appointed by the Credit Class Admin that operates the Registry System to register projects and/or issue credits under a given Credit Class. The Registry Agent maintains accurate accounting and ensures compliance with registered projects, issued credits, and other ecosystem service claims outlined in the Regen Registry Program Guide, Credit Class, Approved Methodology, and Project Plan.
- Project Admin (Proponent): The individual or organization that advocates for a project, identifies its requirements, and drives its initiation. The Project Proponent serves as the main point of contact with the Registry Agent throughout the project and is responsible for initiating project registration, submission of all materials required by the Credit Class, Methodology, and Program Guide, and coordinating project actors.
- Project Developer: The individual or organization responsible for the detailed project management. The project developer, the land steward, or a third party handles detailed planning, design, construction, and project implementation.
In line with our commitment to technological advancement and ease of use, we are collaborating with OurSci to transition from our proprietary mobile application to SurveyStack, an open-source alternative. This change is driven by SurveyStack’s recent integration of GNSS digitizing capabilities, enabling shepherds to record paddock boundaries and other critical monitoring data efficiently. We are developing user-friendly documentation and organizing training sessions to ensure data collection is as streamlined and user-friendly as possible.
Marketing and Sales
Despite the excitement and support for this novel methodology, it is clear that we need to develop markets for these credits further for this and other Environmental Stewardship projects to scale. We will be dedicating more effort to developing markets in the coming months. This series’ third and last part will cover how we are rethinking how credits can be sold.
Acknowledgments
Support for the development of this sheep grazing methodology and pilot project was provided, in part, by a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) [Award ID: NR209104XXXXG006]. Our partner on the abovementioned grant, Fibershed, along with the team of researchers, shepherds, and vineyards, provided expertise and insight into the need to support vineyard grazing.
