Madre de Dios Amazon REDD Project

Initiative

Summary

The Madre de Dios Amazon REDD Project is being implemented in 100,000 hectares of forest in the Vilcabamba-Amboró Conservation Corridor, a biodiversity hotspot, in the Peruvian Amazon. According to the Project Document, the project is being implemented less than 30km from the new inter-oceanic highway uniting Brazil with Peru’s ports. This highway has already led to deforestation in Brazil and therefore poses a threat to forests on the Peruvian side. The project area is already at risk of illegal logging, primarily for high value mahogany species.

The project aims to reduce deforestation by increasing monitoring and enforcement in the area and by benefiting local communities. It aims to contribute to the sustainable development of rural producers and indigenous communities; the Yine and Mashco Piro tribes.

The project has been validated, by SCS Global Services, according to the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) standard (CCB Standards First Edition Gold Level), which guarantee social and environmental sustainability and audits its carbon credits. The project has been also registered in the Markit Environmental Registry Platform to guarantee the transparency of the carbon transactions.

The project activities include sustainable forest management in Forest Stewardship Council-certified timber concessions: Maderera Rio Acre SAC (Maderacre) and Maderera Rio Yaverija SAC (Maderyja), in the Madre de Dios region of southeast Peru. These two concessions are project proponents, along with the NGO, Greenoxx.

Reference levels

The Project Document details the “without project” reference scenario as deforestation and degradation due to illegal land use change from increased population pressure and Highway access within and around the Project Area, and describes the “with project” scenario as sustainable forest management and avoided deforestation through protection of the Project Area boundaries.

MRV

The Madre de Dios Amazon REDD Project follows the Guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Good Practice Guidance (IPCC GPG) and applies portions of internationally recognised standards such as VCS and CCX to estimate the net change in carbon stocks (sequestration, baseline, emissions, leakage, etc.) and prove additionality (using the UNFCCC Additionality Tool). The use of these high quality standards strengthens the case for the project to be accepted under a future UNFCCC REDD Mechanism or a potential US Cap & Trade System. All aforementioned items have been validated by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS).

Reference Level

Projected