Rainforest Alliance

This project is designed to reforest community-owned lands used by 10 different villages, sequester carbon through forest restoration efforts and, through sale of carbon credits, provide economic benefits for local communities. 325 families currently use the project area for agriculture and cattle grazing, the long-term effects of which have resulted in deforestation, leaving the area with sparse shrub vegetation and degraded pastureland. This project will maintain commercial forestry areas that provide local communities with crucial resources like construction wood, employ local farmers, avoid the use of clear-cutting techniques and heavy machinery that negatively impact the environment, and use planting species that are familiar to famers and well-suited for the area’s growing conditions, such as Mexican Weeping Pine (Pinus patula) and Monterey Pine (Pinus radiate). The project will also utilize Polylepis incana, a native species that is in decline due to habitat destruction, to maintain a conservation area that will sequester carbon and generate revenue from carbon credit sales. The total amount of carbon sequestration available for carbon credit selling is expected to be 42,784 tCO₂e.