Where Trees Save the Seas

In the absence of the project activities, this area would be subject to conversion to cropland for pasture and agriculture, creating degradation and deforestation and a significant loss of biodiversity leading to an adverse effect on coastal ecosystems.

The project lifetime is 30 years but is designed to create benefits and impacts that last far longer. The tasks help in maintaining the coastal ecosystems while providing sustainable livelihoods to the highly vulnerable farmers belonging to the local indigenous communities.

– Sid Yadav, Director of Project Research

Project Type: Avoided Nature Loss

Carbon Standard: Verra

Vintage: 2018

Additionality: This project required investment funds for startup and could not scale without the sale of carbon credits to support project operations.

Permanence: This project will operate for 30 years and any risks to permanence are mitigated by the buffer pool, project activities, experienced management and community outreach.

Site Visit: May 2021

Guatemala: The Conservation Coast, is in the Izabel Region, one of the top three most deforested areas in Guatemala. The Project is designed to solve the main drivers of deforestation in the area and to improve the lives of more than 3,000 local families. This project brings together more than 1,000 diverse landowners, municipalities, NGOs, and private and public organizations to protect 60,000 hectares of highly threatened forest. Over its lifetime, the project will sequester 6.1 million metric tons of CO2 emissions.

This is a cloud forest and therefore critical to local water supply for the communities and it supports diverse flora and fauna, reducing threats to endangered species with high conservation value including Jaguar, Baird’s Tapir, and West Indian Manatee.

The project reduces emissions by preventing deforestation caused by the conversion of forests into cropland and pasture. It provides communities with improved land titling and technical assistance for agriculture inputs and routes to market for a variety of forest-friendly products such as xate (jungle leaf), pepper, rambutan, lychee, cinnamon, and helping to develop the coastline into an eco-tourism hub.

• Creates a market for agroforestry products that provide alternative income sources for 199 local producers on 1,000 HA.
• Provides training for 716 men and women entrepreneurs in crops, handicrafts, and ecotourism services. 7 new businesses created.
• Guides 245 small farmers to access government forest incentive payments for protecting and conserving 3,000 hectares of community forest.
• Directly improves the lives of women with education, job training opportunities, and healthcare services (with a focus on reproductive health)

• Uncertainty of the carbon markets and the need for guaranteed project cash flow pose a risk to project operations and require additional grant-seeking activities.
• Growing population and expansion of industrial agriculture and pasture in previously cultivated (now forested) low-land areas threaten the project area.
• Vulnerability to natural disasters, especially tropical storms, which impact project planning and direct resources to disaster mitigation instead of new development