Carbon Neutral Planet

How does it work?

Carbon Offset -- Donation to action

Sierra Gorda Premium Offsets come from the project of Carbon Sequestration in Communities of Extreme Poverty in the Sierra Gorda of Mexico. The design of this project has been validated by the Rainforest Alliance under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the gold level of the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA). Learn more about Sierra Gorda Carbon here (Click).

Bosque Sustentable, A.C. is the vanguard of quality voluntary carbon offsets where your donation goes to work in solidarity with local families and nature in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve, Queretaro State, Mexico.

Obligations:

Calculate your footprint. Pledge to reduce it with a plan.

Donate to offset carbon. Spread the word:

Invite your friends and colleagues to participate through Facebook, Twitter and house parties.

Obligations:

Monitor, report and verify the quality of implementation by local service providers. Comply with the contracted activities or suspend contracts when obligations are unmet.

Update members regularly.

Provide transparent results.

Obligations:

Participate in meetings to learn about the climate change crisis and how trees capture carbon and the role of managed reforestations.

Prove land ownership with documentation. And sign a contract to fulfill management program activities such as pruning, replanting dead trees, thinning to optimize CO₂ capture in biomass.

Prevent forest fires.

Self-evaluation.

Carbon Neutral Planet is an on-line initiative designed and operated by Eco Sierra Gorda, a non-profit organization in the USA. The Carbon Neutral Planet website is a shared platform between partners (Eco Sierra Gorda, Bosque Sustentable A.C. and Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda I.A.P.) who are coordinating their efforts to provide a transparent and well-documented carbon offset process that benefits high biodiversity regions owned by families and ejidos in extreme poverty. Neither entity receives a commission or fee based on what the other raises. Rather the content is in English and Spanish and the person who decides to donate can currently make their donation directly to the partner in Mexico, a tax deductible donation to Bosque Sustentable A.C.

Each offset donation is issued a unique carbon neutral pledge certificate with the serial number corresponding to permanently retired tons of carbon in the reforestations of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve.

With your pledge donation, Carbon Neutral Planet guarantees a specific number of tons of carbon dioxide in the living biomass of trees that will be taken care of for 30 years. We work with rural private landowners within the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve to reforest their degraded lands with native trees within endangered watersheds. Your donation will be registered on-line to track the amount of carbon being captured under sponsorship in the Sierra Gorda mountains of central Mexico.

Landowners are compensated for planting and caring for trees, and managing their reforestations for optimum growth and carbon sequestration. Local forestry experts accompany the landowners every step of the way, providing technical training and expertise, and ensuring successful reforestations that meet carbon sequestration requirements. See the Individual Carbon Offset Provider Requirements here.

This is not a livelihood, but rather it enters the household economy as additional income for properly managing their reforestations and not chopping down forest elsewhere either. Community members participate in workshops to understand the carbon cycle and carry out proper pruning and maintenance or replace a dead tree and thin grown plantations to maximize carbon capture and leave 250 trees standing at the end of 30 years.

The Sierra Gorda partner organizations are internationally awarded leaders in successful community participation in conservation and regional sustainability. The landowners participating in reforestations for carbon sequestration can request the equipment and training to use Solar Household Energy Solar ovens and more efficient wood stoves in order to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon Offset elegibility and evaluation process

Here is an example of a site evaluation form based on satellite photography to determine the eligibility for offsetting carbon.

In addition to yearly inspections made by the landowner, forestry technicians from Bosque Sustentable A.C. carry out detailed monitoring of the reforestation sites ensuring that carbon sequestration commitments are met. This monitoring follows the steps outlined in Márquez, 2000 (http://www.winrock.org/fnrm/files/fundacionsolar.pdf), in accordance with the small-scale reforestation rules under the Kyoto Protocol.

The project utilizes a number of strategies to guard against loss or leakage:

20% of the tCO₂e projected to be sequestered from each reforestation is withheld from sale as part of a project self-insurance buffer. This buffer will be used to compensate for any unplanned loss, as well as insufficient carbon capture in any reforestation.
The project utilizes reforestations that are seldom contiguous and that are located in different parts of the Reserve and its area of influence. As a result, forest fires, tree diseases and pests and local extreme weather events such as hurricanes are unlikely to affect a significant proportion of the project area.
To demonstrate long-term ownership of land, participants must hold title to the land on which the reforestations are located, obtain certificates of legitimate possession issued by the corresponding municipality or, in the case of community-owned lands, obtain official authorization from the community’s governing entity.
Participants must enter into long-term (30-year) contracts committing to management of their reforestations for carbon sequestration. Payments are scheduled at regular intervals throughout the 30-year project and are contingent upon participants complying with management activities.
Contracts with participants specifically list vigilance of reforestations as one of the required management activities on the part of the participants and include requirements for replanting in the case of unexpected tree loss. The organizations of the Sierra Gorda Consortium operate long-term successful programs of enforcement of environmental laws and regulations as well as environmental education with substantial community involvement that have resulted in a substantial reduction of illegal logging in the area.
In order to achieve the goal for carbon capture and ensure its permanence, clearing will only be permitted consistent with management programs developed by Bosque Sustentable and approved by the corresponding authority, for the benefit of the health of the forest and existing biodiversity.

For further Project Information please read our:

Project Design Document of Sierra Gorda Premium Carbon