Mazingira Bora TIST is an innovative, time - tested, afforestation program led by the participant
TIST Pioneer Trainers during a Thanksgiving seminar held at Gitoro Conference Center last month.
TIST: Guidelines on Restoration of Groves. Page 2 ¾ TIST: Guidelines on Clear Cut and How Your Small Group and get back lost Tonnes. Page 3 ¾ TIST: Guidelines when TIST Grove changes ownership – Through land sub-division, Sale of land, death of a TIST member etc. Page 4 ¾ TIST: Leadership and Governance in your Cluster. Page 5 ¾ Kujengana: Don’t miss the blessing for your Small Group and Cluster. Page 6 I
TIST: Guidelines on Restoration of Groves.
O ne of the biggest risk in carbon sequestration projects that involves tree planting is clear cut of significant number of trees. In TIST, clear cutting hurts all Small Groups in the program. When one TIST Grove is harvested, it harms all of TIST! For instance, when we are audited by outside Verifiers, and they find a Grove has been clear cut, the verifiers conclude that this could be the case everywhere else. This means we will be allowed to sell less tonnes hence less sales for the rest of the farmers. What to do when a member of your Small Group decide to cut down TIST Trees. 1. Talk to them about the dangers of Clear-cut. Remind them if they are in need of money from sale of firewood or timber, TIST allow farmers to sustainably thin their trees or prune branches for firewood. 2. If they insist of clear cut, kindly notify your Cluster servants and Cluster leaders. 3. At the Cluster meeting, please have a discussion with other farmers about the issue 4. Convene a meeting of rest of our Groups members and discuss how you are going to replace lost tonnes. You can do this by planting additional trees in your farms. If you do not have a space to plant more trees, you can invite new members to join your Small Group. New members can only be invited when your Small has less than 12 members. 5. Immediately after there is clear-cut, please invite your Cluster Servant to come and re-quantify your Small Group 6. It is important to record, how the harvested trees were treated up to the final product. For instance, if they were used to building materials etc. If you can find out how much the person received for the trees, it will help to compare with the annual profit share they would have recieved. We should all remember that our trees are only paid for carbon, because they act like a store for carbon they sequester from the atmosphere. When we cut down TIST trees, we destroy the “store.” It is because of the “storage services that hold the carbon tonnes” trees get paid for that role. TIST: Guidelines on Clear Cut and How Your Small Group and get back lost Tonnes
TIST: Guidelines on Clear Cut and How Your Small Group and get back lost Tonnes.
O ne of the biggest risk in carbon sequestration projects that involves tree planting is clear cut of significant number of trees. In TIST, clear cutting hurts all Small Groups in the program. When one TIST Grove is harvested, it harms all of TIST! For instance, when we are audited by outside Verifiers, and they find a Grove has been clear cut, the verifiers conclude that this could be the case everywhere else. This means we will be allowed to sell less tonnes hence less sales for the rest of the farmers. What to do when a member of your Small Group decide to cut down TIST Trees. 1. Talk to them about the dangers of Clear-cut. Remind them if they are in need of money from sale of firewood or timber, TIST allow farmers to sustainably thin their trees or prune branches for firewood. 2. If they insist of clear cut, kindly notify your Cluster servants and Cluster leaders. 3. At the Cluster meeting, please have a discussion with other farmers about the issue 4. Convene a meeting of rest of our Groups members and discuss how you are going to replace lost tonnes. You can do this by planting additional trees in your farms. If you do not have a space to plant more trees, you can invite new members to join your Small Group. New members can only be invited when your Small has less than 12 members. 5. Immediately after there is clear-cut, please invite your Cluster Servant to come and re-quantify your Small Group 6. It is important to record, how the harvested trees were treated up to the final product. For instance, if they were used to building materials etc. If you can find out how much the person received for the trees, it will help to compare with the annual profit share they would have recieved. We should all remember that our trees are only paid for carbon, because they act like a store for carbon they sequester from the atmosphere. When we cut down TIST trees, we destroy the “store.” It is because of the “storage services that hold the carbon tonnes” trees get paid for that role.
TIST: Guidelines when TIST Grove changes ownership – Through land sub-division, Sale of land, death of a TIST member etc.
O ne of the requirements set out by World bodies that regulate carbon emission trading is the need to keep a carbon project grove intact for the period that carbon will be sequestered (harvested by trees from atmosphere and stores in trees trunks and branches).In TIST Program and other similar Tree planting programs that are doing Carbon sequestered projects, trees must be kept alive for minimum 30 years within that grove. However, some changes happen during this time. Some Groves get sold, others are subdivided or a Small Group member dies. Yet, we are required by world regulations to keep those groves and their trees intact for a period of 30 years. What to do when a TIST Member dies or land is sub-divided among family members. 1. Your Small Group members should convene a meeting with deceased family members who are beneficiaries of the departed loved one. Explain to them that their Groves is still eligible to continue receiving carbon revenue profits in the future. Family members will still retain the name of the Groves that were under care of their deceased member. They can sub-dived their land, but allow TIST to continue quantifying the original grove the way it was created. When payments come, they can share as per their own agreement. Please note, TIST is not allowed to alter the grove boundaries once the Grove has been included in Project Design (PD) documents. 2. Remind them their participation in TIST program is the best honor they can give their departed one. That legacy is important. They will not only be getting co-benefits and profit share, but will be helping planet earth combat the effects of climate change. 3. Further, encourage them to continue adding more trees in their farm as they continue taking care of already planted trees. 4. Give them Cluster meeting schedules. Encourage them to be attending Cluster meetings to learn other important topics. What to do when a TIST Grove is sold. 1. Your Small Group members should convene a meeting with the new owner of the land where TIST Grove is located. 2. Talk to them and inform them the Grove they bought is still eligible for carbon project in TIST program. 3. That they can began participating in TIST program and benefit from co-benefits, profit sharing and TIST Trainings. 4. They don’t need to plant new trees to qualify. Trees that were already in the Grove they bought already qualify. They only need to plant additional new trees! 5. Take them through TIST Trainings and procedures for Quantification, payments etc. 6. Invite them to your next Cluster meeting. Introduce them and let the Cluster welcome them. 7. Ask the Cluster servant to add them in your Small Group. 8. Remind them the Grove name will still remain with previous owner name ( Because rules do not allow us to change) but they will be now become beneficiaries. Encourage them to activities participate in your Small Group and Cluster activities.
TIST: Leadership and Governance in your Cluster.
T oday, TIST has more than 500 Clusters. In each cluster, Servant Leaders support our success and share their strengths. Each Cluster has governance and leadership as follows: Elected Cluster Leadership.
• Cluster Leader.
• Cluster Co-leader.
• Cluster Accountability person. Cluster Leaders, Co-leaders, and Accountability person serve in each position for a period of four months.After four months of service, the Cluster leader rotates out. The Co-leader becomes the Leader, while the Accountability person becomes the Co-leader. Women and men alternate in the elections. If the Accountability Person is a man, the next one elected will be a woman. Your Cluster should democratically elect a new Accountability person. Cluster elections are important and mandatory for all TIST Clusters. Role of Cluster Leadership. Role of a Leader. 1) Should be a servant to the whole Cluster and exemplify TIST Values. 2) Leads/facilitates Cluster activities: coordinates Cluster meeting, quantification and training schedules with other servant leaders. 3) Motivates groups to achieve big results, especially planting trees and practicing CF. 4) Helps the Cluster to remain strong and united. 5) Helps plan for well-organized Cluster Meetings with other servant leaders and making sure the meetings are properly led and trained. 6) Works with Accountability Person to ensure that Cluster Meeting and Accounting records are kept properly. 7) Works with Accountability Person and Cluster Servant to ensure monthly Cluster reports and Account reports are accurate and sent. 8) Helps recruit and train more Small Groups to be registered. 9) Helps Small Groups have their Greenhouse Gas contracts signed, scanned and uploaded, if necessary. 10) Welcomes and introduces any new visitor who might attend the meeting. 11) For payments, they get vouchers and other materials ready before Cluster meetings. Works with Accountability Person to make sure the proper payment process is followed, and communicates any questions or problems to TIST leaders and Cluster Servants. They remind Small Group members of the next meeting. Role of an Accountability Person. 1) Receives Cluster Budget and announces amount received and spent at each Cluster meeting. 2) Works with the Cluster to plan how to use the Cluster Budget to achieve big results. 3) Keeps and maintains Cluster records in an organized Cluster record book, accurately and in proper condition. 4) Allows inspection of Cluster Records by Cluster members and TIST leaders. 5) Organizes with Cluster Servant to send both Monthly Cluster meeting and Accounting reports every month. 6) Trains the next accountability person. 7) Helps and supports other servants to serve the Small Groups. 8) During payments, they hand out vouchers to groups with at least twomembers present, reviews vouchers, communicates with payment support coordinators, and follows the payment process accurately and honestly. 9) Evaluates Quality of Cluster Trainings. Role of a Co-leader. 1) Takes over when the leader is not there, while the co-leader is to serve both the Cluster members and the Cluster leader. 2) Helps keep time during Cluster meetings. 3) Takes records during the Cluster meetings. 4) Read the previous minutes to the meeting and keep record of the minutes and discussion held in the cluster. 5) Helps train newly elected Accountability People. 6) Evaluate quality of Cluster Trainings. TIST: Leadership and Governance in your Cluster. ENGLISH VERSION 6 K ujengana is a very important part of your Small Group weekly meeting. It says in Ephesians 4:15 - 16that we are to build each other up into the fullnessof Christ. Each person in your TIST Small Groupbrings his or her own special talents and gifts tothe entire group. One of the wonderful things thathappen in the Small Group is recognizing, sharingand using those God-given talents. Kujengana is a way to let those talents be seen and be used. There are two parts to
Kujengana:
• Before the closing prayer,
every person in the group says one specific, positive thing that the leader for that week did at that meeting. For example: they smiled, kept to time, made good plans, encouraged all group members to speak, greeted me and made me feel welcome, pointed out something that was going very well in the meeting or in the work the group was doing, etc. Each member needs to say something different.This is not optional. Everyone gives Kujengana to the servant leader. Some groups also give Kujengana to the co-leader.
• In addition, if someone sees a gift shown by the leader, a group member can also say that. With Rotating Leadership, each week a new leader will receive Kujengana. Through Kujengana, we encourage each other on the good things that week’s leader did in the meeting and the talents the person showed. Kujengana is also the way we learn to look for positive things about people and then say them. We all need to train our tongues to say the positive. In addition, the whole group learns what that group thinks is important in a servant leader. The next leaders will benefit from what they have heard in Kujengana about previous leaders and know what the groups think is important in being a servant leader. In response to Kujengana, that week’s servant leader just says, “thank you” after each group member’s specific, positive statement. There is no discussion about how it could have been done better, or differently. Often, the person is happy when he or she is told the good things he or she did during the meeting. Sometimes we learn things about ourselves we didn’t know! Kujengana helps the leader on that day recognize his or her talents and keeps on using them. Kujengana also helps the Small Group because all the members improve their servant leadership as they learn. Kujengana is a double blessing! Kujengana: Don’t miss the blessing for your Small Group and Cluster