News

April 2021 - UN Report on the CBP and its links to other tools

The United Nations Environment Program has published a report on the recent SLM-CCMC project which promoted the use of the CBP tools, and developed links links to WOCAT and aligned with LandPKS. The project represents first steps to a linked platform of tools which will help land managers realise the carbon benefits of sustainable land management. Read the full report here.

December 2020 - Link between CBP and WOCAT presented as part of the World Soil Day

On December the 7th, WOCAT and The Carbon Benefits Project held a joint webinar entitled 'Managing soils for a sustainable future - a toolset' as part of World Soil day. The webinar showcased the link between WOCAT's database of sustainable land management technologies and The Carbon Benefits Project greenhouse gas accounting tools. To watch the webinar click here.

June 2020 - CBP training videos with Russian translation now available CbP учебные видео с русским переводом теперь доступны

Many thanks to the FAO's CACILM II project for making the Russian translations of the CBP training videos available. These can now be accessed via the Resources page of this site or the Carbon Benefits Platform You-Tube channel.

Большое спасибо проекту ФАО CACILM II за то, что он сделал переводы на русский язык обучающих видеоматериалов CBP доступными. Теперь к ним можно получить доступ через страницу ресурсов этого сайта или на платформе углеродных преимуществ You-Tube.

May 2020 - Carbon Benefits online training for Central Asian countries

During the week of the 25 May 2020, 95 participants from Central Asia countries participated in an online training course on the Carbon Benefits Project (CBP) Tools within the framework of the Central Asian Countries Initiative for Land Management (CACILM II) project. The training will allow participants to calculate carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions associated with land management projects and report on the impacts of activities on climate change mitigation. The training is being given in English with Russian translation. The training videos with Russian translation are available through the Resources page of this site and the Carbon Benefits Platform U Tube Channel.

December 2019 - Recording of the December online training session on new U Tube Channel

On December the 2nd, 4th and 6th the CBP held an online training event where participants learned how to use the Carbon Benefits Project Simple and Detailed Assessments. The event was well attended by participants from around the world and included participants in a CBP 'hub' in UNEP Nairobi where support was provided by formerly trained UNEP staff. Recordings of the training are available form U Tube. Please follow the link under 'Users and Trainers' on the 'Resources' page of this site. All the presentations are also available form the resources page by following the links.

November 2019 - UN Environment in Nairobi, Kenya host CBP/WOCAT training event

From November the 13th - 15th UN Environment in Nairobi hosted a training event on the Carbon Benefits Project/WOCAT linked toolset. We were really pleased to have the event opened by Kelly West, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Coordinator for UN Environment who pointed out the importance of greenhouse gas accounting tools for GEF projects. Following presentations by Dr Maarten Kappelle (Head of Thematic Assessment Unit, Science Division, UN Environment) and Dr Eleanor Milne (the Carbon Benefits Project), fifteen people took part in the three day training course. Participants learned how to estimate the climate change mitigation potential of land management projects using the CBP Simple and Detailed Assessment and were introduced to the CBP socio-economic tools. In addition, training on the linked WOCAT database was kindly provided by Dr Stephanie Jaquet (formerly The University of Bern, now based at CIAT). Participants also had the chance to hear about the use of the CBP tools in the GEF's 'Scaling up SLM in Western Kenya' project in a presentation by Dr Kennedy Were from KALRO.

September 2019 -The CBP/WOCAT training course in Delhi great success

A total of 22 people from India and Asia attended the CBP WOCAT training course in Delhi from the 9 - 11th September 2019. The event was co-hosted by the Environmental Defence Fund (EDF). Trainees included leading Indian researchers and policy advisors, who gained experience using the CBP greenhouse gas accounting tools and the linked WOCAT database of sustainable land management technologies. To read more about the event click here.

September 2019 - The linked CBP/WOCAT/LandPKS tools presented at UNCCD COP 14

The CBP tools have been linked to WOCAT (the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies) a database of sustainable land management practices. Select WOCAT entries can now be imported into the CBP tools to carry out a GHG assessment. At the same time, LandPKS, a mobile phone app for collecting and managing land data have developed a land management module, based on the CBP data fields and categories. This guarantees data collected in LandPKS are compatible with CBP use. These developments were showcased at a recent side event at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification COP meeting in Delhi on Sept 6th. The side event was well attended and the linked tools generated a lot of interest.

May 2019 - CBP tools presented at the 19th WOCAT Network Meeting, Addis Ababa

The CBP tools and their linkage to WOCAT were presented at the 19th WOCAT Network Meeting in Addis Ababa. This was a joint CBP WOCAT presentation made by Mark Easter on behalf of the linkage team. The meeting was hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture of Ethiopia and jointly co-organized by CIAT Ethiopia, WLRC and WOCAT.

December 2018 - CBP Tools presented at the 4 per 1000 Initiative Day Katowice, Poland

On the 13th December the CBP tools were presented to participants of the '4 per 1000 Initiative: Soils for Food Security and Climate' 3rd Meeting of the Forum. The Initiative day ran at the University of Silesia, as a parallel event to the UNFCCC COP 24. The CBP were invited to present the tools in a session entitled 'Monitoring and Reporting of soil organic carbon for climate change mitigation and adaptation benefits at multiple levels'. The CBP/WOCAT/LandPKS consortium are now working closely with 4 per 1000 on shared aims and goals. In addition the 4 per 1000 Science and Technical Committee will advise project holders to use the CBP tools for greenhouse gas self assessment.

October 2018 - CBP WOCAT Linkage Presented at the World Mountian Forum in Kyrgyzstan

Farrukh Nazarmavloev presented the recent work which is linking WOCAT with the Carbon Benefits Project tools. He presented his experiences of using both tools in Tajikistan. Many thanks to Farrukh for raising awareness of the linked tool set at such an important event. To find out more visit https://wmf2018.org/en/home.

October 2018 - WOCAT training in Bahi Dar, Ethiopia

Prof. Hans Hurni worked with personnel from IFAD's CBINReMP project which is being coordinated by Amhara National Regional State, Bureau of Agriculture. The group were able to document four technologies in the WOCAT database. These will being amongst the first to trial the link between the WOCAT database and the Carbon Benefits Project.

CBP Stories featured in UN Environment and GEF News

UN Environment and GEF have just published an article on how the Carbon Benefits Project Tools are being used. Read the full articles here

UN Environment News

GEF News

September 2018 - UNCCD hosts joint CBP WOCAT training event

CBP and WOCAT trainers spent 3 days working with personnel from the UNCCD in Bonn, Germany. Trainees included staff from the UNCCD Global Mechanism and other departments who are working on making Land Degradation Neutrality a reality in countries across the world. Participants were trained in using the CBP and WOCAT tools with example data from Kenya, before exploring the use of the tools in their own work in Armenia, China and St Lucia. They also provided valuable feedback on the need for carbon and GHG assessments in UNCCD activities and how the CBP tools can address this.

March 2018 - CBP training at IAMZ in Zaragoza, Spain

Participants of the short course ‘GHG assessment and mitigation in agriculture: Concepts, methods and simulation tools’ received training on the CBP Simple Assessment. The course was held at CIHEAM – Mediterranean Agronomic institute of Zaragoza (IAMZ) in conjunction with ICARDA. Some 25 GHG professionals from across the region took part, many of whom are responsible for their country’s national GHG communications to UNFCCC.

February 2018 – GEF Western Kenya start using CBP tools

The CBP tools are being used by the GEF project ‘Scaling up sustainable land management and agrobiodiversity conservation to reduce environmental degradation in small-scale agriculture in western Kenya’. The AGRA/UNEP project is being led on the ground by Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and will scale up proven Sustainable Land and Ecosystem Management practices. In February 2018, during a week-long training event, project personnel received training on the CBP Detailed Assessment and used it to explore the potential GHG benefits of different SLM practices at one of their project sites.

January 2018 – Ethiopia, 2^nd Workshop on Foundations in Greenhouse Gas Accounting for AFOLU

CBP trainers worked with Ethiopian land management practitioners in the 2^nd workshop of the ‘Foundations in Greenhouse Gas Accounting for AFOLU’ project. The workshop was focused on using project-specific data and generating and interpreting reports from the CBP to quantify the greenhouse gas benefits of participant’s projects. The first workshop, with the same group, was held in September 2017 and provided training on using the CBP tools. Visit the project page.

January 2018 – CBP will help to estimate carbon stocks in South African Spekboomveld

The GEF UNDP project ‘Securing multiple ecosystems benefit through SLM in the productive but degraded landscapes of South Africa’ is working with the SLM CCMC project. During a CBP training in Grahamstown, January, 2018, plans were made to estimate the carbon sequestration potential of Spekboomveld restoration using the CBP tools. Project staff also worked with the CBP tools to estimate the potential GHG impact of climate smart agriculture in the area.

The United Nations Environment Programme produced a press release to coincide with the official launch of the Carbon Benefits Project which was held at ICRAF and UNEP in mid May. The article stated that ‘scientist will closely study projects in Western Kenya, Western China, Niger and Nigeria and develop a system for measuring, monitoring and managing carbon in a diverse range of landscapes’. To read the full article follow the link UNEP PRESS RELEASE.

The project was also featured in an article on SciDev.net which provides news, views and information on science and technology in the developing world. SciDev Article.