April Salumei Rainforest Community Conservation Project: 2014-2015 vintage

Climate Impact: An estimated 1,628,812 tCO2e avoided annually. 

Project Registry Link: April Salumei Rainforest Conservation | VERRA

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Why support this project?

The April Salumei project protects and sustainably manages nearly  200,000 hectares of globally significant pristine rainforest in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea. The project area has previously been recognised as an exceptional biodiversity hotspot by the Climate Community and Biodiversity Standard (SCS, 2011). Before becoming a carbon project, the area was planned to be cleared for logging. 

The project will prevent 22.8m tonnes of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere over its lifetime and has prevented 1.8 million tonnes of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere during the most recent monitoring period. 

Community Impact

The project also channels climate finance to the community and autonomous local landowner groups, helping reduce poverty and enhance the wellbeing of local communities. TEM partners with 164 local land groups (clans), made up of around 15,000 people, who own the rainforest and who have surrendered their rights to commercial logging and now work closely with TEM to manage the area sustainably.  

The April Salumei Working Group, formed to assist with managing the project, provides employment opportunities to the local community. The project promotes culturally inclusive, sustainable community development via a new five-year Sustainable Development Plan, agreed by locals. 

Previous project activities have delivered benefits including: 

• Providing over 10,000 native eaglewood trees for village areas for sustainable agriculture 

• Providing 1,000 solar powered lights to community schools, health centres and families to provide affordable, sustainable energy 

• Created 18 jobs for community members 

• Providing funds to improve 15 local schools to help promote quality education. 

Biodiversity impact:

In addition to reducing carbon emissions, the project also has a range of other benefits. The project protects vital habitat for many endangered animals, including the tree kangaroo, palm cockatoo, the bird of paradise and the southern crowned pigeon. 

These species are protected from the most prominent key threatening process in the region – deforestation.​ 

The project activities deliver vital biodiversity conservation outcomes: PNG contains ​~7% of global biodiversity across just 1% of the globe’s landmass. April Salumei is one of the top 10 most ecologically distinct areas on the planet. 

Real and Lasting Impact:

Permanence: Project activities must generate permanent reductions and removals in GHG emissions. This requires that the carbon sequestered and stored within the project area will not be released due to unmitigated risk factors such as forest fires, extreme weather events, pest and disease outbreaks and land tenure disputes that result in deforestation. The project has a permanence period of at least 38 years (until 2047). TEM is currently in discussions with PNGFA to extend this permanence period for an additional 40 years.

Additionality: A project is additional if the GHG emissions reductions and removals would not occur without the implementation of the project activities. In the case of April Salumei, the project area was under threat from planned commercial logging. Local communities have agreed to cancel logging permits, with revenue from carbon offsets being paid in lieu of royalties from logging.

Leakage:  Leakage risks refer to risks that timber harvesting and/or land-use conversion will relocate to other areas in PNG and pertain to market effects and activity shifting.​
Leakage effects due to market effects are negligible, however, they have been robustly accounted for in both the calculation of GHG reductions and in additional mitigation measures undertaken by the project proponents. ​Risks of activity shifting were deemed non-existent.

SDGs: The project contributes to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: