Environment and Climate Change
Biodiversity conservation and protected area management
- Protected area management: Feasibility studies / protected area management planning comprising legal and institutional analysis, stakeholder analysis, preparation and implementation of field surveys and socio-economic assessments, identification of key biodiversity areas and conservation priorities, development of conservation objectives and measures, participatory land use mapping and planning, delimitation and zoning of protected areas, buffer zones and ecological corridors, participatory planning of project measures, environmental and social impact assessment, conflict management, promotion of transparent land tenure and ownership rights, initiation and maintenance of cooperative relationships, development of cost and financing plans, assessment of project impacts and risks.
- Biodiversity conservation and management: Habitat protection, wildlife management, wetland management, coastal management and mangroves, adaptive management practices; inventory, applied research and monitoring of fauna and flora, minimum habitat requirements, patrolling, anti-poaching, controlled hunting, game ranching, ecotourism, safaris, ecosystem approach, co-management, consideration of indigenous / traditional / local knowledge, Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), support to negotiation processes and the formation of resource management units, access and benefit sharing.
- Conservation finance: Internalization of environmental externalities, consideration of opportunity costs / costs and benefits of a given ecosystem, assessment of environmental goods and services, Payments for Environmental Services (PES) schemes, compensation schemes for forest protection and biodiversity conservation, contract nature protection schemes, environmental funds, trust funds, debt-for-nature-swap, sector wide approaches.
Climate change mitigation and adaptation
- Quantification of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) impacts of Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation (ARR), Improved Forest Management (IFM) and Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) projects: Determination of carbon pools to be accounted for, estimation of carbon stocks, establishment of Reference Emission Levels (REL), design of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) systems compliant with IPCC / GOFC-GOLD guidelines and VCS standards.
- Integration of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures in natural resources management projects, a.o. afforestation / reforestation and revegetation measures, fire management. Maintenance of ecosystem resilience, introduction of adapted land and resource use practices, especially regarding soil, forests, rangeland and water.
- Climate change finance e.g. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD), enhancement of forest carbon stocks through conservation and sustainable management of forests (REDD+), integration of co-benefits through biodiversity conservation and participation of indigenous peoples (REDD++).
Forest protection, rehabilitation and desertification control
- Forest protection: Application of international standards to the designation and establishment of high conservation value forests, particularly in ecologically sensitive regions (e.g. mountainous areas, transboundary protected areas).
- Rehabilitation of wasteland and degraded forest areas, regeneration of the opencast-mining areas, etc.
- Desertification control: Control of land degradation and desertification processes, erosion control, rehabilitation of vegetation cover, plantation of adapted species in terms of soil and climate conditions.