Description of the Slum Women Initiative for Development through Agroforestry payment for ecosystem services (SWIDAPES) project

  • Women are disadvantaged in land right and forestry

Land in sub-Saharan Africa is regulated under statutory, customary or a combination of statutory &customary law and means of livelihood to people in rural areas especially women. In sub-Saharan Africa, gender inequality in accessing land is mostly evident in the number of land titles held by women when compared to men. This can often result in reduced or no authority over farm resources. Thus, adoption of technologies by smallholders that could improve farmland such as agroforestry is modest given the lack of extension service, resources and the long gestation periods of investments in forestry, especially in Ugandan. Trees on farmland (agroforestry), apart from providing supporting, provisioning, regulating and cultural ecosystem service beyond farm gates, may also help fortify women´s rights to land thereby improving their livelihoods. Thus there is a need to provide incentives for proper management of natural resources through agroforestry.

  • Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES)

The Slum Women’s Initiative for Development (SWID) through Agroforestry payment for ecosystem services is an initiative under the Slum Women’s Initiative for Development (SWID) which seeks to provide incentive for the regulating ecosystem service from agroforestry. SWIDAPES intend to develop and implement a micro-scale carbon offset project for SWID smallholders thus verifying their contribution to environmental protection and conservation and some of the sustainable development goals.

The SWIDAPES project is divided into three phases:

  1. The fundraising phase – To rise €200,000 to cover ALL micro-scale carbon offset costs
  2. The preparation phase – Stakeholder consultation and documentation
  3. The implementation phase – Verification and registration of carbon units
  • GERNIFA sarl

GERNIFA sarl in January of 2017 signed a 2 year memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the SWID to lead the coordination of the three phases of the project. The head consultant of the SWIPAPES project is Dr. Emmanuel Benjamin and he shall collaborate with other partners- Mr. Mohamed Ouedraogo and Mrs. Lorita Iroh.