Forest protection and restoration of 100,000 ha for the benefit of people, nature and climate
Pledge by
The VELUX Group
Protecting forests is essential to tackling the climate and biodiversity crises. The VELUX Group is committed to remove and reduce the equivalent of our historical CO2 emissions from operations, 4.5 million tonnes of CO2, by 2041. We do this by financing forest projects that protect and restore 100,000 ha natural forest in some of the world’s most biodiverse landscapes – to the benefit of people, nature and climate. The projects are developed and implemented by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
- Type
- Conserving, Restoring & Growing, Enabling
- This pledge will take place from
- 2022 to beyond 2030
- Location
- Uganda
Pledge overview
The VELUX Group has committed to reduce and remove the equivalent of our historical CO2 emissions from the organization’s operations from 1941 to 2041. This will be achieved through a portfolio of forest projects financed by the VELUX Group and developed and managed by WWF offices in each country in partnership with local authorities and communities.
The VELUX-WWF partnership goes beyond emission reductions in the VELUX Group’s own operations and our value chain, where we have set a target to achieve a 100% reduction in emissions from operations (scope 1 and 2) and to halve our value chain emissions (scope 3) by 2030.
The partnership endeavors to restore over 10,000 ha of natural tree cover of tropical forest and protect over 90,000 ha of tropical forest area.
All activities are in place by 2030 – just as it is anticipated that the tree planting activities are concluded ahead of this point in time. However, carbon reduction and removal is not complete until 2041.
The partnership’s first project is located in Uganda, where one of the worst affected areas, Kagombe in the Albertine Rift, has seen a loss of 73% of forest cover over the last decade. The project aims to restore degraded forests, plant new trees, and protect the existing natural forests.
The project is designed to improve connectivity by regenerating Central Forest Reserves in the Bugoma-Kagombe landscape, covering numerous central forest reserves across 87,000 ha.
The project works to protect 28,000 ha of the remaining natural forests and restore 5,952 ha degraded and depleted forests, growing new forests where natural forests have been cleared, using species which are indigenous to the region.
Since the project initiation, more than 700 ha have been reforested. Saplings have been planted interspersed with remnant trees and naturally regenerating trees in the project area.
Through community-based conservation, it is expected that the project will reduce and remove 1 million tonnes of CO2.
Additional forest projects will be added to our portfolio to enable us to reduce and remove the equivalent of our historical carbon emissions and to achieve forest conservation and restoration of 100,000 ha natural forest.
All projects will be selected based on the climate mitigation potential, the biodiversity and community benefits as well as the long-term sustainability of the projects.
The carbon emissions removed and reduced by the forest projects are intended to be contributed to the host countries’ conditional climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. This means that the carbon will not be used for off-setting of VELUX carbon emissions or any other organization’s emissions.
Each project will deliver nature-based solutions (NbS) for climate mitigation aligned with WWF’s Blueprint for High-Quality Interventions that Work for People, Nature and Climate. The projects are designed to halt deforestation and restore natural forests in key biodiversity hot spots in partnership with communities and local authorities.
Expected benefits:
1) Nature: Planting and maintaining indigenous seedlings in depleted areas within forest reserves to restore forest cover and subsequently improve biodiversity levels and the health of local faunal populations.
2) Climate: Delivering a climate impact equivalent to VELUX historical CO2 emissions from 1941 and until its 100-year anniversary in 2041, through a combination of REDD+ and ARR activities.
3) People: Developing alternative livelihood mechanisms for local communities, such as providing training in sustainable forest management practices and to produce non-timber forest products to alleviate human impact on the forests in the landscape.
Actions in this pledge
-
Conserving trees and forest landscapes
Supporting actions
- Permanent conservation
- Secure a forest through acquisition or legal agreement to avoid planned or unplanned deforestation or degradation, and/or ensure permanent conservation of land
- Conservation support activities
- Support the operating costs and activities of existing conservation areas, including advocacy for conservation policy
- Other conservation activities
- Other conservation activities include alternative livelihood activities to reduce local communities’ reliance on timber forest products for income generation. These activities aim to reduce pressure on the forests in proximity to people, while increasing local quality of life.
Additional details
In the summer of 2022, a project office was opened in Kagadi in Uganda in cooperation with WWF-Uganda, NFA, and KCSON. This project office enables improved management of the Central Forest Reserves within the project area, as it is strategically placed between all four Central Forest Reserves and allows for easier engagement with local communities as well as our implementing partners.
Monitoring of forest protection outcomes will be conducted in collaboration with partners in the region. This will include remote sensing and field plot inventory, conducted as part of plans for certification of climate mitigation outcomes.
Conserving
- Land area
- ~90000 ha
-
Restoring and growing trees and forest landscapes
Supporting actions
- Assisted natural regeneration
- Actions that support natural regeneration without tree planting, such as Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration, forest soil remediation, exotic species control, disease prevention, and wildfire protection
- Reforestation
- Re-establishment of forest through planting and/or deliberate seeding on land classified as forest, that has been degraded or where trees are unlikely to regenerate naturally
- Agroforestry
- Activities that establish and manage the integration of trees into agricultural landscapes, silvopastoral systems, farming in forests and along forest margins and tree-crop production
Additional details
In Uganda, tree planting began in 2022 in Kagombe Central Forest Reserve. Seedling dispersal, planting, and maintenance has remained on schedule into 2023. Seedlings have been planted in over 700 ha of depleted tropical forest area in Kagombe as of end of 2023.
Monitoring of seedling health and continued maintenance will be conducted by our implementing partners in the region. Monitoring will, in part, additionally be conducted using remote sensing.
Restoring & Growing
- Land area
- ~10000 ha
-
Enabling activities for trees and forest landscapes
Supporting actions
- Nursery and seedling development
- Establish tree nurseries, including actions such as identification and collection of seeds and/or growing seedlings
- Sustainable forest management
- Activities that support the stewardship and use of forests (including by local communities and indigenous peoples), to maintain their biological diversity, productivity, and regeneration capacity, as well as their potential to fulfil relevant ecological economic and social functions
- Education and capacity building
- Forest / tree species conservation and restoration education programmes, targeted educational and behaviour change campaigns, training and capacity building, including promotion of local and traditional knowledge and practices
- Community mobilisation
- Community mobilisation and engagement activities for conservation, restoration and reforestation, including enabling systems of community governance, etc.
- Youth engagement
- Engagement of young people and/or youth networks to catalyse a restoration generation
- Data collection, management and technological tools
- Activities that provide data and/or technological tools to support conservation and restoration (e.g. monitoring etc.)
Additional details
Concurrent activities in Uganda include the development of a comprehensive fire management plan for the Central Forest Reserves, and the promotion of alternative livelihood sources for local communities, including beekeeping, mushroom farming, and woodlot development.
These were the first instances of these kinds of activities in the project area in Uganda. Enabling activities are expected to scale up in Uganda, to reach more people and increase the likelihood of households benefiting and generating income from these interventions.
Enabling
Carbon benefits
4.5 MtCO2 20 years - until 2041
Our ecologically and socially responsible approach
We are partnering with local experts and consultants who have knowledge of the landscapes and the communities in and around them. In Uganda, we have planted only native tree species and employ forest management practices that aim to bolster natural forest regeneration and health. We have actively engaged local communities to make sure they are engaged in forest management and benefit from improved livelihoods.
We intend to certify our projects under Verra’s VCS/CCB standards to ensure our projects are rigorous and meaningful.
Our results tracking
WWF Denmark is in collaboration with local partners developing a tailored M&E framework for each geography of the project. M&E metrics will closely follow the Verra Standardized Benefit Metrics in addition to the inclusion of bespoke metrics.
Ecological metrics
Expected change in the number of hectares managed significantly better by the project for biodiversity conservation, measured against the without-project scenario, expected number of globally Critically Endangered or Endangered species benefiting from reduced threats as a result of project activities, measured against the without-project scenario.
Social metrics
Total number of community members whose well-being is expected to improve as a result of project activities, number of women whose well-being is expected to improve as a result of project activities, total number of people expected to have improved livelihoods or income generated as a result of project activities, number of women expected to have improved livelihoods or income generated as a result of project activities.
Our system of accreditation
We will be pursuing the Verra VCS/CCB accreditation for all emissions reduction and removal activities.
Our partners
We are partnering with WWF Denmark, who will engage their office counterparts in the countries where the projects are taking place and identify implementation partners that understand the context of the landscapes they are operating in.
The project in Uganda is in the implementation phase and the project partners include:
- WWF Uganda
- Environmental Management for Livelihood Improvement (EMLI)
- National Forest Authority (NFA)
- Kitara Civil Society Organization Network (KCSON)
Our locations
We are working at locations across Uganda.
In Uganda, our forest conservation, restoration, and alternative livelihood activities take place in the Albertine Rift across four Central Forest Reserves (CFRs): Kagombe CFR, Bugoma CFR, Ibambaro CFR, and Kitechura CFR.
Additional forest projects will be added to our portfolio to enable us to reduce and remove the equivalent of our historical carbon emissions and to achieve forest conservation and restoration of 100,000 ha natural forest.