BCP (also known as BioCarbon Partners) manages the largest REDD+ project in Africa by size. After topping three of the categories in this year's Voluntary Carbon Market Rankings, Environmental Finance spoke to BCP's CEO, Nicholas Mudaly about how communities sit at the heart of their firm's approach as it evolves in a rapidly changing market.

Environmental Finance: You have once again won Best Individual Offsetting Project for the Luangwa Community Forests Project (LCFP) in Zambia. How has your strategy changed since you last once this award in 2021?

Nicholas Mudaly: Our strategy has been migrating and aligning to a post-development phase with a keen focus on assessing performance, improving design and pivoting to scale. We have realised that key to integrity is inclusion and we have been working on securing long-term offtake arrangements and financing at the early stages to bring more inclusivity from investors to provide a perspective on integrity. We are also working towards bridging the gap between the voluntary and regulated markets, especially from a pricing point of view. We have received positive feedback from customers who appreciate the need for us to transition in this way.

Another major shift is the emergence of a jurisdictional REDD+ approach from the UNFCCC. We expect complexities to arise as the market splits with the rise of voluntary offsets versus the role of offsets toward country-specific nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

We have been actively involved in project development for over 10 years and we believe through our experience on the ground that we are in a strong position to help the facilitators of jurisdictional REDD+ projects to find common ground that incorporates private developers into government implementation in a way that works for everyone – most especially communities.

Under the new design, there's probably going to be a shift away from community to sovereign structures that will hopefully not overlook the rights of indigenous people. We embrace jurisdictional REDD+ but we feel it is critical to understand how to scale without impacting those communities that have been dependant on REDD+ as a lifeline over the years.

It is a complex topic but there are ways to scale without disturbing that community-led approach. We hope we can play a more active role in terms of technical support and advisory to those policy reforms.

EF: You have also been awarded Best Project Developer, Biodiversity. How has your approach changed as biodiversity loss moves up the agenda for market participants and policymakers?

NM: One of the founding aims of BCP was the ability to conserve wild spaces and wildlife. The LCFP connects five national parks and we've seen the value of REDD+ in conserving these critically diverse wildlife areas and corridors. We embrace collaboration and partnerships and, although our focus over the last couple of years has shifted more towards the science-based approach around carbon offsetting, we work with several wildlife organisations, including government institutions, to try and double-up our conservation efforts.

EF: Do you plan to launch biodiversity offsets one day?

NM: We have been looking at this. Our biodiversity efforts have been supplemented by various other funding streams. But for it to be sustainable over the long-term, there's an argument for us to quantify and tokenise those efforts.

We've responded to Verra's proposal and been accepted for pilot projects as they work on developing a biodiversity crediting standard. We've also launched a biodiversity department within the organisation, which is collecting the data that will be essential to quantifying the biodiversity benefits of our projects when standards do finally arise.

EF: You have also won Best Monitoring Report for the third year in a row. How has your approach to impact reporting and data collection evolved?

NM: We want our partners, investors, and supporters to see our projects first-hand, but most importantly we want them to hear from our community partners, who are the beneficiaries of REDD+ finance. This year we wanted to bring those voices to our impact report. In the next couple of months, we plan to launch a documentary on the LCFP that further demonstrates the credibility of and opportunities in the REDD+ space.

EF: What is attributable to your success in these areas?

MN: I'm extremely proud of our people. Our engagement strategy is one of our greatest strengths. This is reliant on having the right people and culture. It's essential for our employees to buy into the vision of BCP – to realise the purpose that we have and do community outreach. The fight against climate change must be executed with the right message. I think that's something that we've done quite successfully.

EF: What do you hope to achieve next?

MN: We have plans to scale and expand operations to other provinces in Zambia and to our neighbouring countries of Mozambique and Angola. These will include two ground-breaking pipeline initiatives to create trans-border wildlife corridors. Achieving conservation areas that go beyond boundaries is something that we can only achieve through initiatives like REDD+. The impact is immense, so our next priority is to keep working on how to quantify that and measure those impacts.

Unfortunately, time is not on our side, and there's a need to scale at speed. LCFP took us to 10 years to develop and we don't have that luxury today. Collaboration and partnerships will be essential to that. If we tackle all this together, we will be able to deliver expansion with a shorter turn around.

As we scale, we are mindful not to lose our focus on integrity in delivering high-value carbon offsets alongside the conservation of the critical biodiversity and wildlife within the landscapes we operate in – and of course, always keeping communities at the heart of our strategy. As early pioneers in this market, we want to leave a positive impression on the global carbon market. We know that we are under the spotlight, and we feel that pressure, but it also drives us to evolve and embrace continuous improvement.

For more information, see: https://bcp.earth/