Unlocking the benefits of Carbon Credits with Emily Urban and Vasco Van

Let’s Talk Agriculture Podcast

What are the benefits of Carbon Credits for farmers in Africa?

Transcription

[00:00:00] Intro [00:00:42] Sharon Idahosa: Do you know that it can actually get a whole lot easier keeping the food supply chain safe and transparent? Join over 30, 000 food, beverage, ingredient, dietary and supplement companies across global supply chain for integrated food safety, quality and sustainability services. For more information, do go to visit foodchainid.com. [00:01:03] Sharon Idahosa: And now, welcome to the Let's Talk Agriculture podcast show. This is our final episode of the Sustainability Series, and I'm excited to bring today's episode your way, where we're going to be looking at carbon credits, how farmers can, you know, gain financial benefits through carbon credits, and even put a premium for their product. [00:01:23] Sharon Idahosa: So join me welcome our guests for today, from two different organizations working hand in hand to ensure that farmers get the best, I mean, what they deserve across Africa and beyond. Welcome, Emily. Welcome, Vasco. Thank you so much for joining the Let's Talk Agriculture podcast show. [00:01:41] Sharon Idahosa: How are you doing today? [00:01:42] Emily Urban Cordeiro: Good, good. Thank you so much for having us. [00:01:45] Vasco Van Roosmalen: Doing well, thank you. And again, yes, thank you so much for having us. It's a pleasure to be here. [00:01:49] Sharon Idahosa: It's always a pleasure speaking with industry experts. I mean, I've been doing this for over three years now and interacting with industry experts also helps me to widen my horizons as well. [00:02:00] Sharon Idahosa: So I really want to appreciate you coming on the show and sharing your knowledge with me and my audience as well. So once again, Thank you. [00:02:08] Emily Urban Cordeiro: Sure. You're very welcome. Looking forward to the conversation. [00:02:10] Sharon Idahosa: Sure. So, yes, let's start with you now.So, in simple and clear terms, what is carbon credit all about? You know, how is FoodchainId involved in the voluntary market as a private entity? [00:02:25] Sharon Idahosa: Let me just know, get more idea about what carbon credit is all about. That's what we've been hearing for so long now. So maybe this is a good avenue to learn more about it. It's simple terms that [00:02:35] Emily Urban Cordeiro: yes. And actually, you know, when we think about carbon credits and what this actually means in the context of smallholders for various market players. [00:02:46] Emily Urban Cordeiro: It is actually complex to think about, you know, Vasco at ReSeed, you know, he'll, he'll explain in great, great detail, of course, how it works from their perspective. And, and I want to, I want to just zoom out for a moment and share how, how carbon credit. It is a way to essentially meet climate goals and on this conversation, we're talking about nature forestry systems, but essentially leverage the, the natural ecosystems that we have to meet our climate goals, um, globally. [00:03:21] Emily Urban Cordeiro: And then really we'll go into great detail about how this trickles down into the farmers and how the farmers themselves are the core to this, the solution and nature based. They now have all the stakeholders and this is working across geographies, across cropping systems, across cropping system types, farm sizes, various farm sizes, and we are a certification verification body. [00:03:49] Emily Urban Cordeiro: I mean, I'm. What this means in current credit is that we, our third party, ensures that all credit yields and claims are in fact according to the [00:04:00] standards and protocol that they were, were, you know, generated from. So that's a little bit of a, a little bit of a background there. [00:04:07] Sharon Idahosa: Thank you for sharing. So maybe Vasco, you want to share your own perspectives. [00:04:11] Sharon Idahosa: I mean, I'm sure everybody has like a different explanation, so maybe you want to give a little bit of an introduction on carbon credits as well. [00:04:20] Vasco Van Roosmalen: Yes, thank you, and Emily, that was really good. Um, on our side, um, we always say that the objective here are not the carbon credits themselves. Carbon credits are a tool that were developed to help drive climate finance, to help Uh, parts of our economy decarbonize or reduce their emissions. [00:04:38] Vasco Van Roosmalen: Uh, and so the idea is that you're able to quantify, uh, current emissions within those economic sectors, let's say agriculture or transport, for example, and then you can quantify and you can direct. Actions that people are taking that are helping, uh, to reduce those emissions and direct finance to those who need that additional support to reduce their emissions. [00:05:00] Vasco Van Roosmalen: And so that's also why Reseed was founded because when we look at the carbon markets of the last 20 years Uh, the university of Berkeley found that fewer than or less than one percent of all carbon credits generated up until now Have actually come from the agricultural space. And that means that we haven't been able to use this mechanism to drive finance to help farmers both to maintain their carbon stocks and to maintain their actions that are driving the sequestration and removal of carbon, as well as helping them finance what they need to do [00:05:32] Vasco Van Roosmalen: to reduce their emissions. And so that is why we found that receipt to really focus on building that bridge and helping farmers access the financing that they need so that they can stay on their lands. They can maintain their regenerative and organic practices and maintain their their activities as well. [00:05:51] Vasco Van Roosmalen: Was drive additional finance that's necessary, uh, to help them decarbonize. [00:05:55] Sharon Idahosa: Thank you for sharing. Thank you for sharing. So I got an insight into a case study where both your organizations are collaborating to supplement, um, Brazilian across, um, cocoa farming. I mean, trying to help the Brazilian cocoa farmers [00:06:11] Sharon Idahosa: with your income through carbon credits. So do you mind elaborating more on this? What role did your organizations play to support this project? Let's hear from you Vasco, please. [00:06:21] Vasco Van Roosmalen: Thank you, Sharon. So yes, so both ReSeed and FoodchainID started a partnership with a Brazilian chocolate company that's called Dengo that has a really high level of involvement in supporting their cocoa producers. [00:06:36] Vasco Van Roosmalen: Uh, to help them measure and also drive again, climate finance, carbon finance to support these farmers, most of whom are smallholder farmers. So when we looked at, at what was going on in the supply chain, over 75 percent of, uh, the farmers in these cacao supply chains of this in the chocolate industry, they are smallholder farmers, and the vast majority of them live on less than a living income. [00:07:01] Vasco Van Roosmalen: And yet, when you're looking also, uh, as in many other countries, many of these farmers actually farm in a way that they're protecting forests. Uh, so in Bahia, you have, uh, In Brazil, uh, the farmers are the response. The cocoa farmers are responsible for maintaining the last remnants of the Atlantic forest in that region of Brazil as they plant the cacao trees under the shade of the larger tree. [00:07:23] Vasco Van Roosmalen: And this way of working this way of growing and making the forest productive while protecting the forest is something that is a really beneficial to all of us as we are looking to reduce deforestation. And so we want to be able to recognize that. And so, ReSeed and foodChainID have worked together and currently we we are working with the farmers in that region to be able to recognize the fact that they are protecting this forest as well as helping them increase the amount of Um, of additional carbon that they can draw down both by improving the soils and that's what's [00:08:00] one of the identified needs by the farmers themselves is how do we increase our yields? [00:08:05] Vasco Van Roosmalen: How do we increase the product? Our productivity of our soils and the health of our souls? And that is a key factor. And that's where, where Dr. Emily is actually, uh, the expert. And so that way we are able to drive finance to these farmers. And at this point, we are able to increase these farmers income between 30 and 50 percent from their current incomes based on bringing in this carbon. [00:08:29] Vasco Van Roosmalen: Finance, which recognizes their protection activities of their carbon stocks and their shoals and forests, as well as supporting them with those additional action. And that's been a key point. And as, as we know, in the cacao sector, uh, over this, uh, the last few months, there's been a tremendous upheaval, right? [00:08:47] Vasco Van Roosmalen: With less supply, uh, prices have gone, uh, to record highs. And there is this. Definitely this instability in the supply, and we need this additional investment to those people who actually are sustaining our entire chocolate industry, which are in the vast majority are smallholder farmers, both in West Africa and in Africa, as well as in countries like Brazil.