Carbon is the Cash Crop
[Music]
john nelson’s land was an oasis
in the middle of haiti’s dry and dusty
central plateau
the soil was covered with a rich carpet
of organic matter
fallen from the trees that had engulfed
his well-terrorist farm
mango citrus coconut and even trees
used to make fine furniture shaded his
young coffee plants
john was a hard-working and
entrepreneurial farmer
but he was never too busy to put down
his machete and take us on a tour
he knew each one of the thousands of
trees that he had planted
with a wide kind grid he would pull out
some chairs and we would visit
and as we readied ourselves to leave he
would cut some sugar cane
for everyone to suck on as we trudged on
to the next farm
john nelson was a carbon farmer actually
he was a small
farmer who grew many things including
coffee
but lately sequestering carbon in his
trees had become pretty lucrative
he was an early eager collaborator in a
carbon offset project that we
the university of the south had
initiated
with the haitian non-profit organization
called partners in agriculture or pia
pia works with haitian farmers in the
central plateau of haiti
to raise agricultural productivity and
food security throughout the region
you may be wondering what is a carbon
offset we all know
that the climate crisis facing us is
caused largely by
rising levels of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere from burning fossil fuels
and clearing forests addressing this
means reducing those emissions
and removing co2 from our air
a carbon offset is literally one ton
of carbon dioxide that has never been
released into the atmosphere
as a result of on the ground activities
such as using wind
or solar power instead of fossil fuels
or by planting trees that naturally
absorb
and recapture carbon dioxide from the
air
storing it in carbon in wood roots and
surrounding soil
the idea is that capturing carbon
dioxide and storing it in carbon in one
place
can help offset emissions in other
places
which on balance helps mitigate climate
change
this means that we can offset our
personal emissions from
cars and airline travel by paying
farmers like john nelson
to plant trees globally
the carbon offset market is booming as
governments
corporations and even celebrities
seek to zero out their carbon footprints
our carbon offset project called
zommi cafe began with a group of farmers
who wanted to plant coffee
in the mountainous region of boijoli
where john nelson lived
in haitian creel buajoli literally means
pretty woods
but ironically boijoli was not wooded at
all
and the region had suffered from years
of deforestation
and soil erosion but john and others
wanted to grow coffee just as their
parents once had
planting coffee seemed like a good way
to produce carbon offsets because
the crop grows best in the shade and
this would necessitate
planting many carbon sequestering trees
paying farmers for carbon sequestration
would help them cover the upfront costs
of establishing these tree crops
planting trees to offset co2 emissions
is hardly a new idea
but it remains one of our most cost
effective natural means of combating
climate change
according to a study published by the
national academy of sciences
in addition to soaking up carbon dioxide
from the air
trees also provide a multitude of
benefits
especially to farmers including
moderation of extreme temperatures
and soil and water protection
trees also help maintain soil fertility
by recycling nutrients and adding carbon
that feeds soil food webs
trees diversify household incomes with
products such as fruits and nuts
medicine and spices animal fodder and
building materials
once established trees are much easier
to maintain
compared to the clearing cultivating
sowing and weeding required every year
to grow crops like corn
all of these benefits make farms more
productive
and more resilient to extreme weather
which is
projected to increase with climate
change
but if carbon offsets are so popular and
tree planting so beneficial
why don’t more small farmers participate
in the global carbon market
not surprisingly farmers like john
nelson
face opportunity costs not the least of
which
is the choice between planting staple
crops to feed their families
and planting trees for future benefits
and in haiti a bag of charcoal made from
trees
earns 50 u.s dollars this is income that
can be used to buy things like medicine
and school supplies whereas it can take
trees
several years to become productive
enough to earn that much money
and although it’s easy to plant a tree
it is more challenging to ensure its
early survival on a landscape full of
hungry goats
drought-prone soils and bush fires
finally there is the high cost of
managing carbon offset projects
for example verifying the carbon stored
in living trees requires the work of
expensive consultants
all of this means that it is really
difficult
for even the poorest farmers to enter
the carbon offset market
although they have the most to gain
in fact most of the benefits of this
market go to
large landowners or to massive projects
that can afford to maintain
and account for vast tracts of trees
when we joined forces with partners in
agriculture
and boijoli farmers the goal was to
remove these barriers
the farmers would transition to more
sustainable shade coffee agroforestry
systems that would sequester carbon
we the university of the south would pay
farmers up front for the carbon held on
their farms
we’d use a campus green fee that was
targeted for sustainability projects
swani students could participate
directly by conducting tree surveys for
the verification process
side by side with haitian students from
partners in agriculture’s
agronomy program this would drive down
the cost of the program
offer important educational experiences
for everyone
and help build strong connections with
our haitian partners
thus omni cafe was born with a meeting
in a church near john nelson’s home
followed by the construction of a tree
nursery
a year later a couple thousand trees
were distributed to a dozens
omni cafe farmers and the next year
the number of participating households
grew to 50.
every spring teams of haitian and swanee
students
comb the hillsides of boijoli to count
and measure every tree
at first the results were disappointing
the zealous farmers had planted way more
coffee than shade trees
and three-quarters of the fragile
seedlings had died during that
first dry season nonetheless
the farmers received their first carbon
payment
based on the number of surviving trees
it averaged about thirty dollars a
family
the following year we returned to find
that farmers had planted
many more shade trees and those that had
survived the previous year were now
thriving every year the carbon payment
grew
as we counted more and more trees and at
the end of the fourth year
we celebrated the first coffee harvest
all the while our relationships with
somni cafe farmers grew stronger
our students spent summers in haiti
conducting on-farm research
they also played a lot of cards and
dominoes with farmers late into the
night
we were family at the end of the
five-year study
we found that the number of shade trees
had increased by tenfold
and all the trees had grown
significantly in size
storing over 120 tons of carbon
across 50 tiny plots of land
this is not a huge amount of carbon
compared to the gigatons of co2 that
humanity
releases every year but it does offer a
model
of what is possible when institutions
like liberal arts colleges
partner with small farmers to work
towards climate change solutions
and as these young trees continue to
grow they will increasingly
absorb and sequester more co2 while
offering
family farms all the benefits that trees
provide
like coffee to sell equally important
carbon offset projects can help avoid
further deforestation
we found that over half of zami cafe
farmers use their carbon payment
to buy things like school uniforms these
are items that might otherwise be
afforded by selling charcoal made from
trees
the champion of all tree planters was of
course john nelson
we counted more than a thousand trees on
his farm estimated to sequester
15 tons of carbon his farm became
legendary as it grew into a shady
biodiverse paradise using the haitian
custom
of communal work parties we organized
farmer to farmer workshop so that john
and others could share their expertise
haiti like many places in the world
suffers from political instability
often reaching crisis proportions
in fact our haitian friends tell us that
current
food and fuel shortages are so severe
they create pressures similar to those
after the
2010 earthquake which is really hard to
imagine
we’ve had to cancel trips as protests
against government corruption have
flared
and crippled the country but our close
relationships with farmers
and partners in agriculture have meant
that the project continues
the tree surveys are led by haitian
farmers
and last year before christmas
carbon payments totaling six thousand
dollars were distributed to the 50
families of boijoli
john nelson died suddenly maybe it was a
stroke in the middle of the night
being up in the mountains at least a
two-hour walk from a hospital
meant that he didn’t have much of a
chance
however his legacy lives on not only in
all those trees that he planted but in
the vision that we
shared carbon is a cash crop
one that can help mitigate climate
change while uplifting
rural economies seventy percent
of the food grown on our planet is
produced by small
farmers who are most vulnerable to
extreme weather
and natural disasters projected to be a
consequence
of climate change addressing global
challenges such as climate change
and rural poverty are often presented
as coming at a cost to society
but planting trees is a regenerative
practice
that protects soils restores degraded
lands
adds productivity and resilience to
family farms
and remove co2 from our atmosphere
imagine the carbon sequestration and
the livelihoods improved if farmers
everywhere
but especially in the global south could
participate
in the booming carbon market
we can make a difference by choosing to
offset our own emissions
and by supporting projects that invest
in small farmers
like john nelson who have so much to
contribute to
climate change solutions paying
farmers to sequester carbon is a global
win-win
ultimately it’s about climate justice
for all
thank you