MAZINGIRA BORA
Special Edition Newsletter
ENGLISH VERSION. www.tist.org
The International Small Group and Tree Planting Program ( TIST)
An Environmental, Sustainable Development and Community Forestry Program.
Members of a Small Group at their Group Tree Nursery.
- TIST Small Group Eligibility Requirements Pg 2
- Policy on short rotation trees Pg 4.
- Requirements to become a Best Small Group. Pg 5
- Criteria for Nomination TIST Small Group Rally. Pg 4
- Frequently Asked Questions. Pg 6
Welcome to a Special Edition of Mazingira Bora, the Newsletter of TIST.
In this edition, we discuss the main requirements that your Small Group needs to meet to qualify in TIST program. It is important to note that the TIST program works towards empowering communities in order for them to gain social and economic benefits from the sale of carbon credits and also through holistic training on sustainable development and health. To realize this goal, Small Groups will be required to meet certain requirements which you will find in this Newsletter. In addition, TIST participants have, through a forum organized by the program, discussed on several occasions a policy on short rotation trees. Read more about this policy in this issue.
If you would like your Small Group to become a TIST Best Small Group, the requirements are clearly laid out in this issue of the newsletter! Find out more. As you read on, TIST has exciting news for the Small Groups who would like to be invited to a TIST Small Groups Rally later this year and have met certain simple criteria. How much do you know about the TIST program? Your queries have been answered in the last article of this edition. If you would like more information, do not hesitate to contact the addresses given at the back page. Enjoy your reading. Have a truly excellent and successful month!
www.tist.org P.O Box 1508 Nanyuki, Kenya Tel: 0724 - 255 369
TIST Small Group Eligibility Requirements TIST Small Group Eligibility Requirements
Here are the main requirements that your Small Group has to meet to qualify for the TIST Program:
1. There should be 6 to 12 members in your Small Group from at least 3 different families.
2. Each Small Group should have a minimum of 1,000 live trees within 1-year after joining the TIST program.
3. Each Small Group should have a minimum of 5,000 live trees within 5-years after joining the TIST program.
4. Your Small Group should replant trees that die, for any reason, each year for at least 20 years
5. Each member of your Small Group should practice Conservation Farming (CF) in at least 1 acre of land. If
total agricultural land owned by a small group member is less than 1 acre, then at least half of that land area
should be used to practice CF.
6. All Small Groups should sign the Greenhouse Gas contract.
7. TIST will pay US$ 0.02 (Ksh.1.50) per live tree per year for the first 20 years. After 20 years, when the trees are expected to have reached maturity, TIST will pay 70% net value of proceeds from green house gas sales / carbon credits.
8. Tree species that are treated as bushes or hedges (less than 4 meters tall) would not be counted as TIST trees.
9. Trees planted at a spacing of less than 2 meters will not be counted as TIST trees.
10. TIST will allow harvesting of live trees that are 10 years or older. However, total trees harvested in any year should not exceed 5% of the group’s total live trees.
11. Each Small Group should have less than 33% “short rotation trees” (example Eucalyptus). Present groups who have planted much more than 33% short rotation trees will have five years (until 2012) to plant additional trees and or harvest present trees until they meet this requirement.
12. TIST Small Groups should allow TIST quantifiers to come and quantify their trees once a year. Small Groups should organize with other Small Groups in their area to provide food and shelter for the quantifiers during these annual quantification visits.
Top: Quantifiers from Chugu Field Office. Bottom: Trainers from Chugu Field Office.
13. Members of each Small Group should meet together to share ideas and best practices every week. If meeting every week is not possible then group members should meet at least once a month.
14. Small Group members should provide proof of land ownership or control for land where they have planted TIST trees.
15. Small Group members should participate in TIST training to help develop and share best practices with other TIST groups.
16. The area where your Small Group is located should have other Small Groups, that are all within walking distance of each other, that have planted a combined total of 100,000 live trees within 1-year with a potential to plant a combined total of 300,000 trees in 5-years.
Policy on Short Rotation Trees.
It is important for your small group to adhere to the following policies that are helpful in assuring sound sustainable growth in the carbon credit business;
1) Each group needs to submit a Forest Plan within the first two years of their membership in the TIST Program. The Forest Plan would include the following issues:
A) Each Grove would be made up of mixed species of trees;
B) Each group would be encouraged to plant and maintain high-value trees such as fruit and nuts, or those with long-term value as timber (such as teak);
C) Tree species which are treated as bushes or hedges (less than 4 m tall) would not be counted as TIST trees;
D) Each group would agree in the Forest Plan not to cut any live trees for a minimum of 10 years;
E) Harvesting live trees after 10 years would be allowed up to 5% of the group’s trees per year;
F) No tree grove would be “clear-cut” at any time, but rather trees would be selectively harvested so that the soil was not exposed to drought and degradation.
2) In order to qualify as a Best Small Group and thus be eligible to become a Mentor Group, the Small Group must plant less than 33% of the trees as “short rotation” trees.
3) All TIST Groups should have less than 50% “short rotation trees” to remain in the TIST Program. Present groups who have planted much more than 50% short rotation trees will have five years (until 2012) to plant additional trees and or harvest present trees until they meet this requirement.
4) If a cluster harvests more than the 5% maximum in a year, the entire cluster would go on a “net carbon accounting” basis for their payments. This might mean that their payments were unchanged, or it might mean that their payments were reduced for the whole cluster because of allowing too many trees to be cut.
TIST Participants in a local seminar also known as In-House Training Seminars
Would you like to become a TIST Best Small Group?
If your Small Group satisfies the below requirements in addition to the basic requirements to be a TIST Small Group, you will be eligible to become a TIST Best Small Group. If you would like to become a TIST Best Small Group, you will be in a position to recruit, register and train other small groups’ participants;
1. Number of TIST trees planted by your group that are now alive should be more than 1,200.
2. Number of TIST Eucalyptus trees planted by your group that are now alive should be less than 33% of total live trees
3. All members of your group should practice Conservation Farming.
4. Number of TIST seedlings in your nurseries should be more that 2,000
5. The number of Eucalyptus seedlings in your nurseries should be less than 33% of total live seedlings
6. Your group should have enough land to plant 8000 trees for your group within 8 years. This also includes land that your group members can get permission and a consent letter to plant trees..
7. Group should have signed GHG contract.
8. Group should have proof that they have been meeting regularly and rotating the leadership.
9. All your group members must adhere to TIST values.
Members of a Small Group tendering their Nursery
Criteria for Nomination TIST Small Group Rally.
TIST plans to have a rally later this year and the groups that will be invited for this rally need to meet the following criteria;
- Your Small Group should have at least 1,000 live trees
- All members of your Small Group should be practicing Conservation Farming
- Your Small Group should have at least 1,000 seedlings.
- Your Small Group members should be trained on and well aware of TIST values.
- Your Small Group members should be trained on and well aware of all TIST program components: Seed collection, Nursery maintenance, tree planting, HIV/AIDS, Conservation farming and GHG business.
- The Small Group should have signed the GHG contract.
- The number of Eucalyptus trees that belong to your Small Group should be less than 50% of the total live trees that belong to the group.
Frequently Asked Questions.
What is TIST?
TIST stands for ‘The International Small Group and Tree Planting Program’. It is an environmental, sustainable development and community forestry program that empowers rural people in developing countries improve their environment and their lives. Most participants are subsistence farmers who find and share their own solutions to local environmental, economic and social problems. The program works with groups of six to twelve people each. The main focus is on reforestation; with the groups receiving an incentive for each tree they plant and keep alive. Alongside this groups receive a holistic training program adapted to the most pressing needs of the local community. Currently this includes training on treeplanting, sustainable agriculture, HIV/AIDS and capacity building skills. Training is conducted through a program of seminars / village seminars and through local trainers facilitating monthly group meetings known as Node Trainings.
TIST is currently operating in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and India The majority of people involved in TIST are the Small Group members themselves. TIST members implement the program voluntarily on their own land under their own efforts and help shape the direction the program takes in their area. . Local staff members are employed to ensure the administrative and training components of the program run smoothly. A team in America and the UK help facilitate the program by raising funds, giving technical support and providing additional training
Who is TIST?
Who supports TIST?
TIST is the name of a program. The program has two main components.
1. The first is the greenhouse gas component, managed and funded by Clean Air Action Corporation (CAAC). CAAC is creating a business whereby the carbon dioxide absorbed by the trees is salable as carbon credits in industrialized countries. The future revenues are the basis for the tree payments made to the Small Groups and will provide direct payments to them once the market is developed and the trees have grown. Revenues will also be used to make the program self- sustaining.
2. The second component is sustainable development, managed by the Institute For Environmental Innovation (I4EI). It provides the Small Group training and capacity building for TIST. I4EI is not-for-profit organization that has received its funding in Kenya from USAID Kenya and CAAC.
Does TIST provide material handouts to the groups? TIST does not provide any materials such as planting pots, tools, seeds or seedlings. Instead the program aims to equip people with the necessary training so that they can perform their activities themselves. Many groups already have all the local knowledge they need to start tree planting, and so it is a matter of finding the local best practices and sharing the knowledge with other groups. Groups are encouraged to think of low-cost ways to start and maintain their nurseries, based upon the resources they already have. For many groups, the money earned by the tree incentives can go towards nursery maintenance. In this way groups are encouraged not to form a dependency on outside help, but to take ownership of the work themselves.
How much does TIST pay small groups? TIST Small Groups receive an incentive for each live tree they plant and keep alive. The payment is $0.02 dollars per live tree per year. This currently works out at about 1500 Ksh per 1000 trees per year. This is a small incentive made at a time when the trees are so small that they have very little greenhouse gas value. Groups are encouraged to remember that the environmental value of the trees and their other benefits are significantly higher. Organized and motivated groups can accumulate enough money to invest in other income generating projects. Once the trees mature and the greenhouse gas value is more significant, Small Groups will receive a portion of the world market price.
Where does the money for the tree-planting incentives come from and how has the price been calculated? The money for the tree planting incentives is coming from Clean Air Action Corporation. During the first few years the trees are too small to qualify for carbon credits. However, Clean Air Action has invested in TIST to provide the cash incentives until the trees reach a large enough size to sell the carbon credits on the market. Until that time Clean Air Action is paying for the trees, taking on all the risks associated with tree mortality, growth rates and regulation changes in the carbon credit market. Based on today’s greenhouse gas market the price per trees Clean Air Action is paying is higher than the greenhouse gas value for the first five to 10 years. In the meantime if Clean Air Action finds there are higher prices the company will be quick to react What is the Greenhouse Gas Contract about? Small groups enter into a contract with Clean Air Action for 60 years. For the first twenty years the groups will receive incentives as detailed above. After 20 years the small group will start receiving 70% of the market price of carbon credits that Clean Air Action has been able to sell after program costs have been covered. The contract sets out the terms and conditions of this agreement in detail. When a group signs the contract they are allowing Clean Air Action to sell the carbon credits that are available as a result of their trees. The trees themselves remain the property of the group
“Small Groups are encouraged NOT to form a dependency on outside help, but to take ownership of the work themselves.”
Mazingira Bora is a Comunity Newsletter published monthly by TIST Kenya, P.O Box 1508 Nanyuki Kenya. TIST Kenya welcomes contributions from Small Groups to share their BEST PRACTICES with other groups. www.tist.org. +254-724-255 369.