Abatable has partnered with the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 to locate six high-impact climate action projects to expand the Games’ global impact. This series of articles examines and explains the projects Abatable sourced to help make Paris 2024 the greenest-ever Games, starting with the Conservation Coast REDD+ project in Guatemala.
Guatemala has some of the highest rates of deforestation in the Americas, driven by expanding industrial agriculture and the migration of subsistence farmers and cattle ranchers into protected areas, alongside rural poverty. These dynamics are further exacerbated by pronounced levels of inequality affecting Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.
The Izabal region on the Guatemalan Caribbean coastline, where the Conservation Coast REDD+ project is located, is hugely diverse, ranging from mangroves and coastal lagoons, to inundated forests, low- and mid-altitude tropical forests, and montane and cloud forests. Thanks to ecological gradients (rising from sea level to 1,100 meters), these forests are home to a wealth of biodiversity including jaguars, howler monkeys, endemic amphibians and over 500 species of resident and migratory birds.
However, Conservation Coast’s coastal forests are surrounded by farmlands, rural communities, and expanding towns and urban areas. Forest encroachment and the industrial agriculture associated with palm oil and cattle ranching critically threaten this area. Some 65% of the original forest cover on the Guatemalan Caribbean coastline has already been lost to human activity.
As a result of these pressures, the Conservation Coast REDD+ project was set up to preserve Guatemala’s Caribbean coast rainforests by combating deforestation and changing local land-use practices. Thus, Abatable identified it as a high-impact carbon reduction project with multiple additional benefits for biodiversity and local communities.
Over the first ten years of its operation, Conservation Coast has avoided over eight million tonnes of CO2 emissions, provided health services to 64,000 people, and created over 1,100 rural employment positions, hiring women for 41% of the roles.
How does Conservation Coast work?
The Conservation Coast project was identified by Abatable and chosen by Paris 2024 for its significant environmental and social impacts. It protects and enriches a vast and extremely biodiverse at-risk forest area of 54,157 hectares, whilst providing employment opportunities, financial support for girls, educational assistance, and improved access to healthcare for local people.
The project came to life in 2012 and will run for 30 years, ending in 2042.
This Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) project generates high-integrity carbon credits under the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) carbon credit project category. Besides protecting the local forest, it also provides a vital habitat link within the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor – an important location for migratory bird species. Conservation Coast is the largest grouped REDD+ project of its kind, benefiting from an improved conservation programme achieved through the cooperation of 1,128 landowners.
Conservation Coast has set up programmes targeted at the community and landscape level to prevent widespread deforestation across the project area, creating carbon credits thanks to long-term interventions that conserve threatened forests and the carbon stocks within them.
The project operates through multiple actions:
- Surveillance and law enforcement – this sees protection and surveillance activities in highly endangered areas in coordination with government agencies, local municipalities and communities;
- Biological monitoring – with staff monitoring the populations of birds and amphibians to confirm the positive impacts of forest protection;
- Improved local livelihoods for 100 local communities – through agroforestry technical assistance, land tilting support, and health and education services; and
- Conservation education – through formal and informal education activities that involve local communities.
Conservation Coast is certified by the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS – ID1622) and the Climate Community and Biodiversity Standard (CCB). The project has a CCB Gold Level for Biodiversity Conservation.
The project is subject to annual verifications by independent auditors, as required by the VERRA-VCS and CCB standards.
Who receives the money from the sale of carbon credits?
The money spent purchasing carbon credits goes to a transparent benefit share mechanism that ensures local partners receive strong benefits. The project budget gives priority to service provision to local communities and nature conservation with:
- 45% of revenues invested in the protection of forests and biodiversity and the creation of nature reserves;
- 37% invested in technical assistance, community land titling, health and education and training opportunities;
- 10.5% invested in biodiversity monitoring, social monitoring, carbon monitoring and carbon audits; and
- 7.5% assigned to administrative and management costs.
Project costs are capped to maximise direct transfers of benefits to the local community partners from the sale of carbon credits.
What biodiversity impacts has the project had?
Conservation Coast has acted to strengthen biodiversity in the region by:
- Preserving diversified forest ecosystems and habitats, including protecting key watersheds that ensure water supply to local towns and villages;
- Protecting endangered species, including 30 species identified as ‘High Conservation Value’, such as the jaguar and the Baird’s tapir, and creating ‘Alliance for Zero Extinction’ sites for critically endangered amphibians; and
- Creating a vital migratory corridor for the 120 bird species that use Guatemala’s forests as their main winter stop-over refuges during their biennial journeys between North and South America.
How has Conservation Coast impacted local people?
The Izabal region has complex and deep-rooted cycles of inequality and poverty. Improving welfare and equality and generating opportunities for local people are central goals of the project.
Besides creating over a thousand rural employment positions, Conservation Coast has significantly expanded local access to healthcare through a network of 24 ‘Women Clinics’ run by local communities. These clinics provide sexual and reproductive health and family planning services. Mobile clinics further facilitate access to health services for disadvantaged groups, such as Indigenous women who do not speak Spanish.
To date, over 64,400 people have benefitted from these health services, with 4,500 families having used family planning services.
The lives of families are also being transformed by the creation of jobs, agricultural training and improved access to legal and financial resources. Already, over 1,120 local people have been trained in sustainable agricultural practices and ecotourism.
In addition, the project has provided financial support for girls. Over 130 girls have benefited from a scholarship programme aimed at providing financial support to help them complete their primary and secondary education. Meanwhile, over 21,700 students have taken part in environmental education activities, helping to raise awareness of the challenges of climate change and ecosystem conservation. Business training and other assistance are also provided to women to pursue sustainable enterprises and productive initiatives.
What other impacts has the project had?
The carbon revenues generated by Conservation Coast are stimulating sustainable economic development, successfully countering the fiscal drivers of deforestation. For example, local ecotourism is expanding thanks to the development of a network of ecotourism sites and infrastructure to create a hub for green tourism.
Likewise, forest management has improved and agroforestry has been burgeoning since the project began offering technical assistance and helping to prepare forest inventories and forest management plans so that landowners can take advantage of government forest incentive programmes. Farmers in the area have benefited from access to technical assistance and supplies for agroforestry projects. By building the capacity of forest owners to manage their land sustainably, the project helps to ensure responsible use of forest resources and promote the long-term conservation of valuable forest ecosystems.
Establishing strong local governance roots that include Indigenous communities was also fundamental for the project. More than 100 local and Indigenous communities, some 3,250 families, are involved in Conservation Coast, playing an essential role in maintaining the integrity of the work by actively participating in consultation, decision-making and the implementation of activities.
Mayra’s testimonial
Mayra was born in the village of China Cadenas in the Izabal region. She was going to be given into a forced marriage at the age of 14 (30% of women in Guatemala are married before the age of 18). Instead, the project saved her from a forced marriage and provided her with a scholarship.
Mayra became the first person in her community to obtain a university degree.
Today, Mayra has returned to her community to encourage other girls to pursue an education as she did. For Mayra, conserving her community land is sacred. Now, with a degree in forestry engineering, she hopes to be a positive force for the environment and for the forests her community call home. ‘Women need to be empowered to safeguard mother nature. It’s up to us women to care for it. If we don’t do it, it will all be gone,’ she says.
Read more about Mayra’s story here.
How can Abatable’s carbon sourcing tools help you?
The Conservation Coast REDD+ project is a prominent example of how a high-impact carbon project can deliver multifaceted benefits to the local environment, people and economy whilst significantly reducing carbon emissions. Abatable uses a state-of-the-art suite of carbon sourcing tools to help world-leading organisations find the right partners and amplify their planetary impact.
Contact us to learn more and start implementing your impactful climate strategy today.
Written by climate and energy writer Charlie Bush.
