KAYA Newsletter #1. November 2024
KAYA Newsletter #1. November 2024
Introduction
Welcome to KAYA’s latest newsletter. We’ve made great strides recently, in our mission towards high-integrity conservation and restoration of terrestrial ecosystems.
Our team is preparing to support the Angolan delegation at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. And we’ve seen great progress in the development of the KAYA lab – which will be vital for our scientists to understand the most suitable tree species for our reforestation and agroforestry projects.
We’ve met with many important stakeholders in Angola as some of our Berlin team completed a successful field trip.
In addition, we’ve delightedly welcomed some highly experienced new team members to the KAYA family. Read on to find out everything we’ve been up to!
Latest News
COP29
We’ve been in talks with the Angolan Government for joint representation at COP29 in November. We offered help with progression planning of their NDCs, and we intend to support the formation of carbon regulations in the country. Our team has cultivated positive relations with important state sector stakeholders to ensure our progress is as smooth as possible.
Meet our team in Baku, Azerbaijan between 11-22 November! We’ll be hosting events on the themes of “Landscape-level restoration and fire management in Angola” and “Leveraging the power of markets to help achieve Angola’s climate goals” in the Blue Zone. If you are interested in learning more about our participation and would like to connect, reach out to us [email protected] or find us at the Angolan pavilion.
New Partnership
We’re delighted to announce a strategic partnership with one of the leading grassland and soil carbon project developers, CarbonSolve. Their expertise will prove invaluable in informing our approach to landscape interventions.
Project News
Three key intervention types were determined to tackle Angola’s unique landscape challenges: reforestation, agroforestry and fire management. By the end of this year, we expect to complete feasibility studies to determine the most suitable approaches in the most suitable regions.
Such interventions can yield high-value, high-integrity carbon credits. KAYA will utilise carbon finance and market-based mechanisms to support the long-term implementation needed for lasting change.
Angola’s northern Malanje province is the key region we’ve been looking at. Between 2001 and 2023, over one million hectares of land was deforested in Malanje. We also continue to scope nationally in other regions of Angola for potentially suitable reforestation sites
Field Trip
A successful recent field trip saw KAYA’s team meeting with local villagers and farmers to carefully involve them in the process and understand their needs.
In fact, we met with many important local stakeholders to help realize our holistic approach to our carbon projects, and to align with our three key pillars: Community, Climate and Biodiversity. We truly believe that natural conservation and restoration is rarely possible without empowering local communities and helping them build resilience.
By increasing and diversifying productivity of farms, and increasing sustainability, agroforestry and fire management practices can yield great benefits to local communities. By restoring degraded areas and protecting natural regeneration areas, forest ecosystem services can be restored, providing more employment opportunities.
Organic Farm Visit
To gain further insight into the cultural and landscape challenges KAYA is going to tackle, our team visited a large organic farm in Malanje where agroforestry practices have been applied.
Paulo and Solange Pereira have been running the Espaço Agricola farm near Cacuso, Malanje for the past 15 years, growing a wide variety of crops and employing around 80 people.
The team gained valuable insights into cultural and landscape challenges KAYA will face.
KAYA Lab
Meanwhile, a regional office in Malanje is opening soon, with construction taking place on the KAYA Lab nearby. The Lab will host 200ha of test plots to grow native tree and plant species identified for our reforestation and agroforestry projects.
Field operations have begun with support from the Angolan Institute for Forest Development (IDF) and local stakeholders.
Local hiring is underway to prepare the land and collect the native seeds required to build nurseries, which will primarily focus on propagating trees for reforestation and regenerative agroforestry systems.
The initiative supports our field school projects and serves as an experimental area, laying the groundwork for all future KAYA projects in Angola.
Groundbreaking Study
Our team completed a comprehensive study on suitable native tree species, and a seed guide to inform the seed collectors to help build our nursery.
We aim to gather 375m seedlings over 12-20 years. Important seeds from native forest species, such as Mussive (Guibourtia coleosperma), Muxoxi (Sanna siamea), and Baobab (Adansonia digitata) have been secured.
The study had not previously been conducted in Angola, highlighting the challenges we are overcoming in our bid to become the first carbon-certified natural protection and restoration project in the country. The study will be available as a resource on our website soon.
KAYA Website and Social Media
As things kick into full steam at KAYA, we will be sharing more frequent updates on our website and social media channels. Follow us on LinkedIn to keep abreast of our progress.
Industry News
KAYA welcomes the news that the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) and the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI) have formed a strategic partnership to help scale-up high-integrity carbon markets across Africa. KAYA is committed to adhering to the highest integrity standards.
Meanwhile, a new structure for a global carbon market became closer to reality with the development of a standard for project methodologies and carbon removals. The supervisory body assigned by the UN to formulate the guidelines has put forward a proposal that helps operationalise this key carbon crediting mechanism (Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement). Assuming it is effectively endorsed during COP29, emissions removed in one country could be credited and sold internationally, helping increase the demand for credits.
Hiring
We’ve recently welcomed a host of new team members across the fields of Market and Policy, Community Engagement and Communications as our projects kick into full swing.
Be sure to check out our LinkedIn jobs page for frequent company updates and job postings.
We’re currently hiring for:
– AFOLU Project Development Specialist
– Angola Head of Operations
If you know a suitable candidate, or you might fit the bill yourself, we’ll be happy to hear from you!
KAYA Climate Solutions
