Bagepalli CDM Reforestation Programme

21 years back, ADATS realised that timely rain dependent Field Crops were not suited for drought prone regions we work in. Small and marginal farmers needed to switch to more hardy Tree Crops.

From 1996, Member Coolie families started putting aside small patches of their land to plant tamarind and mango saplings. ADATS only provided technical assistance to procure good saplings. In 11 years from 1996 to 2007, they planted a total of 74,254 saplings, but survival rate was very poor at 26%.

In April 1998, we registered the first avatar of this project, the "Bagepalli Tamarind Project", as an Activities Implemented Jointly (AIJ) Project certified by the DoE, US government. Science to calculate sequestration was provided by Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

In mid 2007, we appointed TÜV SÜD, München, to validate the project. A lot of ground was covered in the desk study and first validation visit, but our PDD was nowhere near completion. We hadn't followed the rigour that CDM demanded. Discrete plots were delineated once again, GPS coordinates and plot details fed into a highly specialised in-house developed software, baseline carbon stock recorded, etc. The entire effort, including software development, project preparation, validation, registration, etc. was totally financed by the Coolie Sangha with zero external funds.

The second Validation by TÜV SÜD took place in 2010. In 2011, we finally registered one of the world's first Afforestation/Reforestation CDM Project to plant trees on 8,933 hectares of rain fed dry lands belonging to 8,107 small peasants. Click here for details on the UNFCCC website.

Project implementation was largely self-financed by 1,296 participating farmer families from 155 villages. Alf Bjørseth, a private philanthropist from Norway, supplemented their effort with grants totalling ₹ 7.2 million from 2007-2010. Growing farmer friendly fruit, fodder, fuel and manure trees on parched lands was a painstaking and challenging task that Coolie Sangha families took up with passion and enthusiasm. During the September rains every year, they dug 1 cubic metre pits and filled them with sand, red earth and manure. They planted Mango, Cashew, Silver Oak, Tamarind, Jamun and other saplings of their choice, and tied thorny branches to protect against grazing. Every year they replaced saplings that had died in the summer heat and undertook fresh planting.

They installed 280 pre-fabricated tanks on their fields, and hired bullock carts to haul water from ponds. Each sapling was hand watered with two buckets of water, twice a week, for 5-7 summer months every year. TNO, a research institute from the Netherlands, assisted with an experiment to place Rockwool slabs under the saplings, at the time of planting, to retain the hand poured water for a few extra days.

But whatever they did, more than half the planted saplings died every year due to the scorching heat and uncontrolled grazing. Many families gave up; new persons came forward. In the ten-year period from 2007-08 to 2016-17, a staggering total of 616,474 saplings were planted. Only 56,377 (9%) survived.

 Annual Planting and Survival

Year	Participating Families	Fresh Planting & Gap Filling in the Year	Sapling Count at Year Start	Sapling Count at Year End
2007-08	886	93,728	83,728	51,550	55%
2008-09	637	22,704	74,254	19,306	26%
2009-10	414	51,935	71,241	52,718	74%
2010-11	409	17,684	70,402	30,977	44%
2011-12	442	50,276	81,253	34,126	42%
2012-13	520	71,847	1,05,973	49,807	47%
2013-14	611	75,500	1,25,307	60,147	48%
2014-15	644	75,401	1,35,548	66,419	49%
2015-16	664	74,049	1,40,468	57,592	41%
2016-17	664	83,351	1,40,943	56,377	40%
		6,16,474			9%

In 2015, we decided to transition the project from CDM to Gold Standard. Click here to access key project documents at the GS MARKIT Registry website.

After re-registering, the project underwent the first Verification. 26,350 GS VERs have been issued to 509 farmers who planted on 1,710 acres in 134 villages. Click here to download a .kml file and view each planted plot on Google Earth.

ADATS is looking for potential Carbon Buyers for these Forestry tonnes. Every single Rupee we get as Carbon Revenue will be given to these 509 farmer families as a reward for the environmental service they have provided through their heroic battle against Climate Change. Of the 1,296 families who participated, only 39% made it. We believe that receiving Carbon Revenues will incentivise many more to plant and protect farmer friendly trees on their holdings.

To view GS VERs issued so far, click here.

A snapshot of the project activity and the CO₂ fixation is as follows:

• In December 2017 we sold 3,000 tonnes to NUMERCO, London
• In December 2018 NUMERCO once again bought another 1,810 tonnes
• In February 2019 FairClimateFund, the Netherlands, bought 972 tonnes
• In October 2019 Primaklima, Germany, bought the remaining 20,563 tonnes

In the first week of February 2018 we distributed Rs 15.62 lakh to 509 farmer families who had persevered in their two decade long effort to switch to tree cropping.

In October 2019 we will once again distribute the balance Rs 1.62 crore to these same families in proportion to the number of trees that have survived - i.e. the volume of Greenhouse Gases they have sequestered on their fields.

The below table shows the vintage years of issued VERs:

After having actually seen the flow of Rs 1,78 crore worth of carbon revenue, many more families have come forward to participate in farm forestry. In 2019 alone, another 250 farmers have planted saplings on about 500 acres. But 5 years will be too small a time to measure any serious sequestration on these newly planted discrete plots.

For the current planting, the next verification in 2020 will be for about 20,000 tCO2.

Case Studies

• 838 016 Muninarayanappa
• 838 012 Honnamma
• 605 050 Laxmamma
• 605 012 Narayanappa
• 827 024 Sarojamma