Carbon Monitoring and Offset Feasibility Study for Urban Forests

Our challenge is to advocate for conservation of fragmented green spaces and urban forests that can be extended as part of the central forest spine connection for biodiversity conservation in Malaysia. The current green spaces eg. botanical gardens and urban forests are under threat by development for housing and other commercial activities.

   UNDP Malaysia has been working closely with CSOs and state governments through Small Grants Programme to conserve forests and green spaces in their efforts to tackle climate change and protect indigenous communities’ livelihood and cultural heritage. These conservation project undertaken often requires sustainable financing beyond project cycles to ensure conservations efforts are continuous and impactful. However, small grants project only runs for 4 years period and forest conservation are typically reliant on public (donor) funding and is difficult to come by. A solution that combines public funding and a diverse funding stream from private sector, philanthropy and individual giving is required. The communities are also faced with growing threats from corporations and state authorities to degazette green areas in both urban and rural areas for infrastructure, agriculture and industry development purposes.  The project team have been working closely with communities to raise awareness on the value to protect and maintain green areas both from the ecological and economical point of view. However, getting reliable data on environment benefits eg. GHG emission reduction and calculation of ecological fiscal value to convince relevant stakeholders on conservation priority has been challenging for the communities. Many advocacy are also done in silo by different civil society organisation. As such, a digital solution that utilises user-friendly sensors, satellite images and data with established system to distribute carbon credit would be very useful in our effort to advocate for conservation of green spaces and forests, and impact policy discussions for financing and accounting of natural capitals. It will provide diversified funding streams for the communities in implementing continuous conservation activities over the long run.   

  UNDP will work with EverImpact, a Digital Solution Provider under Digital X Catalogue by CDO to a)  Provide monitoring tools for accurate data on green covers in urban area in real time and for scenario development and projection of generation/loss of economic value of green spaces in urban green spaces. Location that we are looking at is in Klang Valley range from 100 – 1,200 hectares of green spaces  b)      Provide real time monitoring of state park and customary land areas in (ii) Crocker Range Biosphere Reserve (144,492 ha) and (iii) Upper and Middle Baram (982,900ha) that are currently under threat for logging concession with licenses given out by state government, which the indigenous community are trying to protect their customary territory. Data generated on carbon emission reduction will be monetised as carbon credits to generate income to convince the state government and provide support for on-going conservation work by the communities. The state government will also benefit from more innovative financing mechanisms in terms of generating income from the forested land, usually logging follows by conversion of land into oil palm plantation are the most common practices. Through this project and combined with the Ecological Fiscal Transfer effort by Federal government will provide alternative solutions for state government income generation.   

AccLab Malaysia is monitoring carbon in urban forests using IoT and Satelite images for potential carbon offsets in our effort to conserve green lungs in Malaysia. #Betterairquality #healthyurbanliving #innovativebiofinancing

If we are able to  improve revenue stream for state governments/private owners to conserve green spaces, and justify the cost of conservation for urban green spaces, including opportunity cost, the business case to conserve the green spaces and prevent over development for other purposes will be strengthened, and more green spaces will emerge in surrounding cities following the successful carbon offsets in Klang Valley as prood of concept.

Visual thinking and mapping, data visualisation, smart cities and community Asset Mapping: The EverImpact Carbon Monitoring dashboard will provide a consolidated view of the green spaces in urban Klang Valley and the among of GHG emissions on hourly basis. This will help local councils and state government to determine source of pollution and create environment management plans to conserve local biodiversity and prevent climate induced disasters. Proof of Concept: Klang valley will be mapped and carbon offset feasibility will be submitted for consideration, upon successful proof of concept on the processes and improvement in protocols, it will be replicable to other cities in Malaysia

   Polygons geographical info, Species and age informations, Historical management records, Ownership info for carbon credit assessment, consolidated data on tree age and species etc  

The proof of concept will benefit the immediate communities living around the urban forests in terms of health. It will also support the state and federal government aspiration and targets to in protecting total covers of green lungs in Malaysia and cut carbon intensity against GDP by 45% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. This model can be replicated to other states and benefit more communities economically, socially and financially in the long term.