project design

Projects of the WLT restoration ecology programme – including its Carbon Balancing work – have been carefully selected and designed to take a holistic approach, considering additional benefits such as biodiversity, ecological restoration, community benefits and sustainable development, all of which give a much greater value and permanence to the projects.

Prior to initiating any of the restoration ecology projects, each is assessed against the WLT project selection criteria, to ensure that it fulfils WLT’s own standards, particularly relating to conservation value, project location, and overall feasibility.

In addition, projects within WLT’s Carbon Balancing programme have been designed to meet standards for voluntary emissions offsetting. These include additionality, leakage, permanence and a reliable verification and monitoring procedure. The Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) has set standards suitable for our type of approach, focussing on the multiple benefits coming from land use and forestry projects including biodiversity, social issues and water resources, as well as carbon sequestration. We use these to evaluate our own project design and performance.

WLT actively chooses not to submit Carbon Balanced projects for official certification owing to the considerable costs involved, and the resultant lack of flexibility in terms of project design. The Restoration Ecology Programme owes much of its success to innovation and a willingness to adopt pioneering approaches to achieve our aims. We are committed to the spirit and principles behind the CCBA standards, without sacrificing our ability to experiment, to be different and to challenge existing project methodologies in order to gain actual certification. All Carbon Balanced offsets are uncertified and accordingly, may not be used for carbon trading purposes.

Our projects are always customised to meet the needs of a particular site. In any one location we may have to use several approaches (see project areas) depending on the circumstances on the ground. WLT is closely involved with its restoration ecology projects at all stages – design is always carried out in collaboration with local partners, there are regular site visits and the consultation process continues through long-term monitoring. Project reports are regularly updated and progress is given in WLT News.