Agroforestry in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) is a suitable biological mitigation intervention that contributes to NDC targets and REDD+ objectives. With that in mind, this paper attempts to demonstrate the ways in which a private sector business has established an agroforestry system on 38.5 ha and its role in increasing carbon stock. Temporal sets of aerial photographs, satellite images, and matched pairs of field photographs were used to illustrate the development of shaded coffee agroforestry over a 20-year period. Before the establishment of agroforestry (1994), the land use was dominated by cultivated land (73.2%), barren land (17.1%), and shrubs/bushes (6.3%). At the present (2016), 31.2 ha (81.2% of the area) is covered with forest, of which 52% has a closed canopy. The average total carbon stock of the area was found to be 176.5 tC/ha which would relate to 647.76 tCO2/ha. At USD 5 per tCO2, the total value of carbon sequestered by this estate over a 20 year period would be approximately USD 124,693.
This study illustrates how a private sector company – Plantec Coffee Estate (P) Ltd. – was able to achieve a positive change in restoring degraded landscape through private investment. The study results suggest that the role of agroforestry for meeting the REDD+ targets could be significant. Additionally, it demonstrates the feasibility of private sector investment in REDD+ activities. Both of these findings pave the way for replicating the active involvement of the private sector in the restoration of degraded lands and contributing to the REDD+ objectives through agroforestry interventions.
The report was co-funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Nepal.