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Good practice Imported

Community-Based Avoided Deforestation Project — Cacheu & Cantanhez National Parks (Guinea-Bissau)

Guinea-Bissau · Cacheu · See the Guinea-Bissau profile

Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 33% 53/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Guinea-Bissau's VCS-certified REDD+ project across 181,200 ha of Cacheu and Cantanhez national parks has issued 1.8 million carbon credits and channels 30% of revenue to communities; an independent study found forest gains but no significant mangrove-specific effect.

181,200 hectares
Total protected area covered
1,806,617 credits
Verified carbon credits issued (against 2002-2017 baseline)
30 %
Share of REDD+ revenue channelled to communities (FIAL)
2011-2031 years
VCS crediting period length

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Instituto da Biodiversidade e das Áreas Protegidas (IBAP) & BioGuinea Foundation
Period
2011-2031 (crediting period); baseline 2002-2017
Keywords
REDD+, VCS carbon credits, mangrove conservation, national parks, benefit-sharing

Context

The Community-Based Avoided Deforestation project, developed by Guinea-Bissau's protected-areas institute (Instituto da Biodiversidade e das Áreas Protegidas, IBAP) with the BioGuinea Foundation, covers 181,200 hectares spanning the Cacheu Mangroves Natural Park (Tarrafes de Cacheu) and Cantanhez National Park. It protects forest and mangrove habitat against clearance for agriculture and charcoal production.

Activities

Registered under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS project ID 2324) with a crediting period running 2011-2031, the project channels 30% of REDD+ revenue directly to participating communities through the Fund for Local Environmental Initiatives (FIAL), alongside non-cash benefits such as environmental education and paid roles in community forest monitoring.

Results

The project has generated 1,806,617 verified carbon credits against a 2002-2017 deforestation baseline. An independent evaluation using satellite imagery and household interviews (2000-2020), conducted as academic research through NOVA University Lisbon, found statistically significant reductions in forest loss and agricultural expansion inside the protected areas after 2017 — but found no statistically significant protective effect for mangroves specifically.

Conclusions

This is a genuine mixed result rather than an unqualified success: general forest-loss reduction is evidenced, but the mangrove-specific protective effect is not. Because Verra's own project registry page could not be directly retrieved for this write-up, the credit and hectare figures rely on the project developer's technical documentation cross-checked against an independent REDD-project database and the NOVA University Lisbon evaluation, rather than a primary registry lookup.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — No specific budget figures were found in the sources reviewed; REDD+ MRV, VCS certification and multi-community benefit-sharing at 181,200 ha scale imply a medium cost tier, though this is a conservative estimate absent published budget data.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — 20-year crediting period (2011-2031), with a baseline established over 2002-2017 — a long-horizon carbon programme.
Staffing & skills
Instituto da Biodiversidade e das Áreas Protegidas (IBAP) — national protected-areas institute, BioGuinea Foundation programme staff, Paid community forest monitors, Fund for Local Environmental Initiatives (FIAL) administrators

Conditions for success

  • VCS certification and defined MRV baseline enabling verifiable carbon credit issuance
  • National protected-area institute backing (IBAP)
  • Transparent revenue-sharing (30% of REDD+ revenue to communities via FIAL)
  • Paid community roles in forest monitoring, building local buy-in
  • Independent academic evaluation adding external credibility

Common failure modes

  • Mangrove-specific protective effect was not statistically significant despite overall forest-loss reduction
  • Primary registry data (Verra) could not be directly verified in this review, relying instead on secondary sources

Where it fits

Governance type
national protected-area institute + carbon-credit NGO partnership (IBAP + BioGuinea Foundation), VCS-certified
Scale
landscape/national park (181,200 ha)
Income level
low income (Guinea-Bissau, least-developed country)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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