Carbon farming refers to carbon accounting methodologies that reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or capture and hold carbon in vegetation and soils. Aboriginal carbon projects like carbon farming provide opportunities for on-going ‘untied’ income for Indigenous communities, and directly contributes to the achievement of social, cultural, economic, environmental, health and political outcomes, therefore producing ‘core-benefits’ in these domains. Carbon farming adheres to the same principles of supply and demand found in all agribusiness however, the commodity produced is referred to as ‘carbon credits’. In Australia this financial commodity is formally known as an Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU).

Part 1: Philosophy underpinning Core Benefits Verification Framework

The Core Benefits Verification Framework was developed by the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation. The framework was built on evaluation best practice from the international development sector and provides a reputable, independent, and transparent verification process, and importantly embraces the articles set forth in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Australia became a signatory to in 2009.

Guiding principles for core benefits verification:

• ‘Indigenous to Indigenous’ verification
  • All external verification of information is undertaken by Aboriginal experts across community and development projects.
• Aboriginal ownership
• Strength-based approach
• Capacity building
• Data triangulation
• Cost effectiveness

There are parallels between this framework and existing mechanisms, however all other approaches have prescribed indicator banks or refer to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework, and request areas of measurement to be chosen from these. Instead, the Core Benefits Verification Framework is intentionally without prescribed indicator banks because indicators are written in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, and require fluency in those languages to understand the nuances of the indicator. This framework also puts ranger groups and community members at the front of decision-making, compared to other approaches that rely on external auditors, that are accredited to drive verification.

Part 2: Applications of the Core Benefits Verification Framework

The Core Benefits Verification Framework has drawn on evaluation principles from the international development sector and as a result applies a community development lens to verification.

There are many Indigenous people and rangers actively involved in carbon farming in Australia that have minimal knowledge of the carbon industry and its markets. To build knowledge, AbCF partnered with the Centre for Appropriate Technology to develop the ‘Aboriginal Carbon Farming and Core Benefits Management’ training course. The training course teaches participants how to triangulate evidence through data diversity and where further evidence could be located to support core benefit claims. Economic benefits resulting from an Aboriginal carbon farming project may be used within communities to enhance or increase existing environmental programs. These indirect environmental benefits can be quantified.

Governance of the verification framework is comprised of the following tiers:

• Verification teams
• AbCF Management
• Core benefits verification advisory body
• ISEAL Alliance membership

The Core Benefits Verification Framework acts to verify Aboriginal values associated with carbon farming. Its application however, is broader than the carbon industry and a similar approach will be developed for Best Management Practices (BMP) in the primary industry sector.

1. Verification Framework can be applied to other carbon farming methodologies and to other sectors in the future (i.e. agriculture, health and education).
2. The development of this framework has been tried and tested in the Australian Aboriginal carbon farming industry, where buyers pay a premium price for Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs), demonstrating environmental, social and cultural core-benefits.
3. Funding to develop the framework was secured through the Carbon Plus Fund established by the Queensland Government, for the purpose of providing greater support to Aboriginal communities in Queensland, and enable the undertaking of carbon projects that could provide additional employment, economic participation, and cultural outcomes.
4. One key benefit for the Australian Government and other investors in Aboriginal carbon projects, is the contribution these projects make towards the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is therefore foreseeable that information about the core-benefits from Aboriginal Carbon Projects, could contribute to reporting our national and local level achievements against many of the SDGs.
5. It is not the purpose of this approach to measure the impact of a grant, or the success of AbCF’s programming, but to verify that claims relating to core-benefits, meet the requirements of the voluntary market and hence qualify for a premium price.
6. It is not the purpose of the Core Benefits Verification Framework to scrutinise existing research activities. Instead, the verification process will affirm that research activities are being implemented, and explore the benefits of these. The information attained through the customised analytical tools (see Part 3) informs the building of a verification tree (evaluation plan) which becomes the roadmap for the verification.
7. The research and development behind the Core Benefits Verification Framework draws on existing measurement blueprints including the DFAT Monitoring and Evaluation Standard (April 2017); OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) codes (2000); Australian Evaluation Society (AES) ‘Guidelines for the Ethical Conduct of Evaluation’; Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) ‘Principles and Guidelines for Ethical Research and Evaluation in Development (April 2016) and the BOND UK ‘Evidence Principle & Checklist’. It is further guided by the expertise of international development practitioners responsible for the verification of DFAT funded projects.