Climate Change: Animal Waste Management System GHG Mitigation Project, Brazil

This project proposes to apply to multiple swine CAFOs (located in Minas Gerais and Goias, Brazil) a GHG mitigation methodology which is applicable to intensive livestock operations. The proposed project activities will mitigate AWMS GHG emissions in an economically sustainable manner, and will result in other environmental benefits, such as improved water quality and reduced odour. In simple terms, the project proposes to move the designated farms from a high-GHG AWMS practice, an open air lagoon, to a lower-GHG AWMS practice, an ambient temperature anaerobic digester with capture and combustion of resulting biogas. Sites will be constructed throughout the project crediting period in a phased approach as site owners find it reasonable and financially practical.

Introducing progressive AWMS practices throughout the region could result in an annual reduction of over 4.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) annually.

Furthermore, the proper handling of this large quantity of animal waste is critical to protecting human health and the environment.

Energy problems are also a major issue in rural regions of Brazil. Anaerobic digesters produce biogas containing a high percentage of methane, which can be used for localized energy (either heat or electricity) production. The proposed GHG mitigation project satisfies the Brazilian government priorities for environmental stewardship and sustainability while positioning the project activity participants to develop and use renewable (“green”) energy.

This project activity will have positive effects on the local environment by improving air quality and will set the stage for future possible on-farm projects (such as changes in land application practices) that would have an additional positive impact on GHG emissions with an attendant potential for reducing groundwater contamination problems.

This project activity will also increase local employment of skilled labour for the fabrication, installation, operation and maintenance of the specialized equipment. Finally, this voluntary project activity will establish a model for animal waste management practices, which can be duplicated on other CAFO livestock farms, dramatically reducing livestock related GHG and providing the potential for a new source of revenue and green power.

According to Brazil‟s Inter-Ministerial Commission on Global Climatic Change, manure management is an important issue that needs to be solved. Failure to do so will allow existing problems (e.g., increased (insect) pest populations, problems with allergies and livestock disease, including foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) which exists in Brazil), to continue unabated. To this end, Brazil has in recent years required all CAFOs to transition from single to multi-lagoon systems, and even more recently has required them to line the bottom of their primary sedimentation lagoon to prevent effluent seepage.

Establishing a positive model for other livestock operations is essential.

The proposed GHG mitigation project satisfies the Brazilian government priorities for environmental stewardship and sustainability while positioning the project activity participants to develop and use renewable (“green”) energy.

This project activity will have positive effects on the local environment by improving air quality (by reducing the emission of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and odour, for instance) and will set the stage for future possible on-farm projects (such as changes in land application practices) that would have an additional positive impact on GHG emissions with an attendant potential for reducing groundwater contamination problems.

This project activity will also increase local employment of skilled labour for the fabrication, installation, operation and maintenance of the specialized equipment. Finally, this voluntary project activity will establish a model for animal waste management practices, which can be duplicated on other CAFO livestock farms, dramatically reducing livestock related GHG and providing the potential for a new source of revenue and green power.

In the end, concerning the vulnerability, this program could be seen as a step forward for the improving of health situation and management of cattle’s manure; in the other hand, it doesn’t influence the water supply or the resilience of the territory, only a major energy indipendence with an autonomous production of renewable energy.

The final evaluation of the program is without any doubt positive; it includes within many advantages as: reduction of GHG emission, renewable energy production, health improving for the population, new “green” business and employment.

Furthermore is clear that this kind of programs is almost impossible to establish without an external (economic) help which in this case come from a CDM program, that finally results vital to gain the fixed goal.

Source: http://cdm.unfccc.int/Projects/DB/TUEV-SUED1144681162.39/view

1 comentario / 17 Feb 2012 por Luca Palma
IMSD /

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