Bringing it down!
In March of this year, we announced Biochar Life successfully completed the European Biochar Certification (“EBC”) standard for Artisan Farmer accreditation audit with the Ithaka Institute.
Biochar Life is among the first organizations in the world to receive the new EBC “tropical farmer” accreditation.
“Smallholder farmers in the developing world have the capacity to contribute significantly to carbon removal efforts by converting crop residues, which today are often merely burned, into carbon sequestering biochar. Biochar.life gives smallholder farmers the capacity in the developing world to tap into the fast-growing carbon removal markets, which will only motivate them to produce biochar and reduce in-field crop burning, as well as improve farmer livelihoods and enhance food security.” – International Biochar Initiative.
Today, 6 months later, we are proud to announce “With the recent biochar activities certified, we reached the milestone of 1,000 tonnes of CO2eq removed! We’ve engaged over 200 farmers and 21 verifiers to make this happen.“
This was accomplished by a handful of dedicated people who recognize that carbon removal is vital to our future recovery from Climate Change.
Along the way Warm Heart has received various grants and public donations to train small holder farmers how to make biochar from their crop waste. We trained 10,000 farmers how to make biochar, and that number is still growing.
Biochar Life is up and running, despite having no major funding source to help. We coordinated 200 farmers and verified 1000 tons of C02eq removal in the first 6 months! Imagine what we could accomplish with substantial financial support to expand our reach!
How do we do it?
We mobilize a huge previously untapped human resource, the smallholder farmers of the developing world, to convert currently burned crop waste, a huge, previously ignored source of greenhouse gases, into carbon sequestering biochar. We work with smallholder farmer networks to obtain EBC certification and generate C-sink certificates that are available for purchase from us or our trading partners.
What does it mean for the farmers?
For the farmers this is a win-win-win situation.
Win # 1 – Turning crop waste into biochar provides a new source of income when the farmers need it most, after harvest when there is no other work available.
Win # 2 – When farmers add the biochar to their soil, they are not only sequestering carbon, they are bringing their soils back to life and reap the benefits of bigger, healthier crops.
Win # 3 – The reduction of smoke from open field burning provides an immediate health benefit for the farmers, their communities, and contribute to reducing carbon in the atmosphere for all of us.
The Process
What does this mean for you?
Climate change is such a big issue, so big it can bring on feelings of helplessness to do anything about it. We hope to provide inspiration by showing yes, we can do something about it.
It also means food security for you and your family. Biochar will help farmers reap bigger, stronger, healthier crops.
Since we are a small, grassroots nonprofit, our funding comes from individuals who see the benefit of our work and want to participate by supporting us through a donation. We have partnered with GlobalGiving to raise the funds to continue to expand our biochar program.
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