Alto Huayabamba: Carbon Dioxide sequestration through reforestation with small-scale farmers

Initiative

Summary

ACOPAGRO and Pur Projet set up this project in Alto Huayabamba to alleviate pressure on forests and biodiversity in the area. ACOPAGRO is an association of cocoa producers in San Martin, established in 1997. Reforestation efforts aim to increase the productivity of the land for local producers. The project was initiated in 2008 and aims to reforest more than 2300 hectares of land shared by 1800 small-scale farmers within the ACOPAGRO cooperative. The project aims to reforest cocoa plantations, purmas (or unproductive lands) and other plantations with 2 million trees over 6 years. It is expected that this will capture 1,150,000 tones of CO2e over 40 years. As of June 2013, the project had planted over 1.2 million trees. The project received validation from the Rainforest Alliance according to the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) in December 2011. As of the end of 2013, the project has not yet issued any Verified Emissions Reductions (VERs) (Verified Carbon Units; VCUs).

Stakeholder engagement and participation

This project works alongisde the farmers cooperative Acopagro, who have participated in the design and implementation of the project and who play an active role in setting the policies and strategies of the project.