Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

The active project‚ primary purpose is to use a nature-based strategy in addressing the needs of the community in Ban Phaday, Bolikhan District, Bolikhamxay Province regarding climate change. The primary focus is on Carbon Sinks (Natural & Engineered), along with significant components addressing the Energy category and decarbonizing the sustainable utilization of natural resources. This is being achieved via Community Based Organization (CBO) Phaday with the support of NGO Humana People to People Laos (HPP Laos) for 1,848 people, including 1,051 women, in 308 households. This project by providing Household Biomass Gasifier (HBG) cookstoves and training enables the villagers themselves to be able to carry out waste management, biological carbon capture, stock feed and manure management, and decrease deforestation, resulting in long-term carbon sequestration, clean cooking, and improved family health and livelihoods while also reducing the workload for local women and producing other benefits. 
Following local stakeholder consultation, CBO Phaday was formed with HPP Laos providing hands-on support to the CBO and other project stakeholders, especially local government authorities. CBO Phaday is based on a group of 308 Hmong ethnic minority households who have been cooperating with each other since 2012. The project is in line with Ban Phaday‚ village development report and plan. The project‚ founding date is July 1st, 2020.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

Furthering sustainable and climate-smart agricultural production via Farmers’ Clubs to improve families’ own nutrition through a more balanced diet as well as creating a crop surplus for sale. Also reforestation and biochar production from crop waste.

Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

The project is empowering those traditionally underrepresented in the leadership of the climate movement, with HPP Laos supporting the establishment of Community-Based Organization (CBO) Phaday, based on an existing group of 308 Hmong ethnic minority households who have been working together since 2012. The CBO comprises 1,848 people, including 1,051 women, 244 youth, and 6 people with disabilities. HPP Laos supported the proposal development process and conducted a community stakeholder consultation with 70 people, the majority of whom were women, to discuss planned activities and the community‚ needs. The local level of the Lao Women‚ Union (LWU) has been actively incorporated in project activities, especially organizing trainings and awareness-raising events to ensure women‚ needs are addressed. HPP Laos conducted a consultation with LWU at the central level in preparation for the proposal, and the village‚ Head of LWU is a member of the CBO Committee (2nd Deputy Head of CBO Phaday). Gender has been mainstreamed throughout the project management cycle with activities designed to be gender inclusive, and LWU closely integrated to ensure that women‚ needs are met. The project has introduced Household Biomass Gasifiers (HBGs), which have several advantages for women: relieving them from the daily burden of collecting wood in the forest and providing a smoke-free kitchen environment with significant health benefits for women and children. Women have also been actively involved in biowaste management and biochar production activities as they are generally in charge of the household and garden activities around the house. 
The target community all belong to the Hmong ethnic group, as do the CBO Phaday leadership committee. HPP Laos‚ Project Leader is also a community member. Project activities are conducted predominantly in the Hmong language, enabling ethnic minority members to fully participate and provide feedback. Hmong women especially are less likely to speak Lao and would have been disadvantaged if activities were not conducted in their own language. However, project documentation and reports are in Lao, the country‚ only official language, to address government criteria. The project has reached 244 youth as part of the 1,848 beneficiaries and closely involved them in all activities, especially the awareness campaign, as young people will be impacted much more by the consequences of climate change. The project has engaged Lao Youth Union representatives as guest speakers as part of an awareness campaign. Like women, girls have also benefited from the HBGs in the same ways as their mothers, i.e., lessened workloads and healthier home environments.
The project gives a voice to these groups on addressing climate change. It empowers vulnerable rural households engaged in subsistence farming exposed to extreme weather events that threaten their crops, property, and productive land.

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