10. Leakage

• Project activities must balance the reduction in income from newly-imposed restrictions.
• From project interventions which reduce agricultural productivity or access to timber, livestock grazing or other forms of resource, potentially leading to emissions being generated or removals being reduced.

The risk of leakage can be reduced by implementing activities to increase productivity and/or provide alternative sources of income which don’t contribute to the leakage.

Avoiding leakage can be achieved by increasing productivity and/or income by a minimum of an equal amount to any decreases that result from controls on agricultural practices, livestock grazing, timber harvesting or other resource use activities which have the potential to cause leakage.

It is far better to prevent leakage where possible, but if this is not an option, it must be estimated and/or monitored using an approved approach, so it can be subtracted from the carbon benefits. This involves identifying all project activities and stakeholder groups with the potential to cause leakage, and a description of mitigating measures to reduce likelihood.

For project activity where direct monitoring of leakage is not feasible, leakage emissions can be estimated, based on the assumption that any reduction in productivity or income that results from project activities which is not mitigated, will result in leakage.

The amount of leakage assumed should be equal to that required to result in a no net-loss of productivity or income as a result of project activities. If the areas that are likely to be affected by leakage are unclear, the worst-case scenario should be assumed.

Your PDD should include:

• A description is required for each project activity which has the potential to cause leakage. This should include a description of the leakage mitigation measures to be implemented, and an estimate of potential leakage emissions, with details of how they were estimated and justification of any assumptions used.
• A justification for any project activities that claim not to cause leakage.