The Swiss-based climate protection foundation—have just returned home from a visit to the Solomon Islands last month where they met with landowners, government representatives and project coordinators, and visited the Babatana Rainforest Conservation Project in Choiseul.
myclimate is a major buyer of the Babatana credits generated from Sirebe’s and Siporae’s forest conservation work.
They supply these credits—known as climate contributions—to ethical buyers in Europe who are committed to reducing their environmental impact.
Their customers purchase these credits, or contributions, voluntarily because they believe in their responsibility to contribute to global climate solutions.
Silvana Comino, the Senior Project Manager and nature-based solutions expert, emphasised the importance of the on-site visit: “It is important for myclimate to fulfil all the criteria required of a high-quality project. To ensure our partners won’t face any reputational risk by supporting high-integrity climate projects, we assess the impact on the ground, alongside our implementation partner.”
Part of the appeal of the Babatana project for myclimate and their customers is the project is small-scale, Indigenous-owned and provides real benefits to the entire community of landowners.
Hearing stories from forest rangers, tribal landowners and community members helps strengthen the connection between buyers in Europe and the real lived experiences on the ground.
Silvana began her visit by meeting with Solomon Islands Government representatives from the environment and forestry ministries in Honiara, alongside the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) who are supporting the development of some project sites in Babatana.
She was then welcomed by Babatana project owners and spent the week walking in the Sirebe rainforest, seeing the impacts of the project in communities, attending ranger training and sharing information about the market in Europe.
“As part of our regular internal due diligence process, it is important to go to the field and meet the people who make the project possible—it also feeds your heart and gives you energy to keep going,” says Silvana.
Also important to buyers is the technical methodology behind the project. Babatana uses the Nakau Methodology, which was established especially for the Pacific Islands context.
Solomon Islands’ NGO Natural Resources Development Foundation (NRDF) plays a major role in delivering this approach, supporting rangers and customary landowners to meet many of the technical requirements of the project, such as monitoring the forest and reporting back to the carbon standard Plan Vivo and auditors.
“It is also important to meet the technical practitioners and operating staff responsible for the project, to ensure the technical methodology fulfils all requirements for high-integrity climate protection projects,” says Silvana.
“This matters to buyers and the market in general because they want to avoid reputational risks if they support projects that will receive bad reviews from the international media.”
Nakau’s CEO Robbie Henderson joined Silvana on the visit, along with NRDF’s Wilko Bosma and Fred Tabepuda.
“Our role is to build the capacity of local partners and to fill the gaps where needed—including providing specialist services, for example, GIS and mapping capabilities,” says Robbie.
“But Nakau believes in a localised approach where land and carbon rights are retained by Indigenous Peoples and customary landowning communities,” he added.
“Our approach is to support landowners in developing their own projects. We provide services, support their capacity and act as their agent in dealings with the market, including with buyers like myclimate.
“myclimate’s project visit joins the dots all the way from the community level to the buyers in Europe.
“This was the first time for the people to see and speak to a buyer in person. It was also an opportunity for myclimate to gain an understanding about how this project protects forests and changes lives on the ground.”
myclimate has been purchasing Sirebe credits since 2021 and will now add Siproae credits to their portfolio.
Siporae Tribal Association Secretary, Atkin Vilaka, says his tribe is looking forward to this moment, and are proud of their conservation impact.
“My tribe is contributing to protecting some of the untouched forests in Choiseul,” Vilaka said.
“ And by doing that, we contribute to the Kolombangara Corridor, one of the largest [protected areas or intact old growth forests] in the Pacific,” he added.
“What we have contributes to the global fight. That really motivates us.
“When we get our first carbon income, we have plans for three clans.
“We will share the income according to these three clans and these clans will have their development plans. Not forgetting our women and their organised activities.
“Through supporting the women, all the family will benefit. The children, and the entire family.”
As Silvana says, this work is “about empowerment of the tribal communities—strengthening their skills to manage their carbon projects alone and honoring their decision to protect their forests rather than selling the timber for some short-term cash income.” – Source: cyclamate
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