Project Summary:
This project will test a biodiversity conservation model liked to carbon offsets, working with communities in Zambia.
‘Lion Carbon’ is a scalable and sustainable biodiversity conservation model, which links payment to local communities (generated through the REDD+ avoided deforestation mechanism) to 30-year habitat protection agreements. Lion Carbon addresses the proximate threats to biodiversity (poaching, habitat loss, and poor management) through strengthening local and regional capacity to manage natural resources, and the social threats (poverty and undervalued biodiversity) through job creation and the distribution of benefits from verified forest carbon offsets to local communities.