BioCarbon Partners, in collaboration with the Zambia’s Forestry Department and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife, is developing a large-scale REDD+ project seeking certification under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). The goal of the project is to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, and generate income from the resulting emission reductions in order to fund conservation and poverty alleviation initiatives in the region. The project covers nearly 700,000 hectares of community-managed forests, thus, establishing the largest REDD+ program in the country to-date. UNIQUE was contracted to perform the analysis of agents, drivers and underlying causes of deforestation as part of the requirements for developing the project according to a specific VCS accounting methodology.

• Literature review on deforestation to identify key agents, drivers and underlying causes.
• Land use/land cover analyses to estimate historical deforestation extent, rates, trends and patterns.
• Expert consultations, interviews and focus group discussions to assess the causes of deforestation.
• Assessment of benefits and costs associated with deforestation.