The Moldova Soil Conservation Project focuses on restoring degraded lands across the country through wide scale reforestation efforts covering 20.3 thousand ha of previously degraded lands.
Nature-based Intervention:
The project focused on using reforestation and afforestation to repair degraded lands and vulnerable soils. This included the return of 20.3 thousand ha of previously degraded lands back into general production. The implementation of this program involved working with a network of 383 communities and 23 forest enterprises within the country. Over 60% of the project sites are owned by local communities and plating took place at 2,421 different project locations. The project also opens up use of the forests to sustainable timber harvesting and the harvesting of non-wood forest products in order to bolster local livelihood outcomes. In areas which are highly degraded the project utilized fast growing tree species such as Robinia pseudoacacia and Gleditschia triachantos to stabilize the soil and and once the landscape has recovered the species can be harvested and replaced with native oak and ash.
Overview of context and outcomes:
Moldova faces widespread risks from land degradation and soil erosion. More than 50% of the countries territory is located on land which has an incline making it vulnerable to erosion and gully formation. The erosion risk is widespread and more than 80,000 ha of land have been destroyed by the formation of 6,200 ravines. A goal of the project was to support Moldova’s commitments to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Changes (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol mechanisms.
The project is reportedly estimated to have 3.6 million tons of CO2 reductions over a 20 year time span. It is reportedly estimated that the project has a net anthropogenic GHG removal impact of 179.200 tons of CO2 annually. During the time span of 2004-2009 it is reported that 515 thousand tons of CO2 were sequestered during the project.
The project utilizes reforestation on marginal lands to reportedly stop soil erosion on these degraded hillsides. The root systems of the forest also reportedly help prevent landslides which were increased in likelihood due to the previously unstable soil conditions.
The restoration efforts reportedly improve the habitat quality and the amount of aboveground biomass found within the ecosystem.
The large scale forest restoration reportedly helps to increase local community access to supplies of fuel wood, timber and non-timber products (such as medicinal herbs and hunting), which can all be utilized by the local community to support their livelihoods. The community reportedly harvests 70,000 m3 of wood biomass annually and the management of the forests and replanting operations have created both temporary and permanent jobs.
The project is managed and implemented by Agency Moldsilva which is a public administration body on for the Republic of Moldova in charge of managing state policy on forestry and hunting.
The 20 year financing need reported by the program is 19 million USD, 80% of which was utilized in the first five years to conduct large scale planting. They also practice the sale of carbon credits with 1.9 million tons of carbon already contracted to World Bank Funds, 1.3 tons contracted to Prototype Carbon Fund, and 0.6 tons contracted to the BioCarbon Fund. For the 2004-2017 crediting period it is reportedly estimated that the project will generate $7 million.
There are no clearly reported monitoring protocols currently identified.
No information yet available on tradeoffs.