Project

Climate Change Mitigation Project for Sustainable Reforestation in Colombia

In the framework of Novartis’ voluntary climate protection engagement, EBP has been developing the climate-relevant components for a sustainable forest plantation, which for the first time in Colombia is mixing native and commercial tree species on a large scale.

On behalf of Novartis and in collaboration with Carbon Decisions International, EBP is developing a climate change mitigation project based on sustainable reforestation near Puerto Lopez, Colombia. The large-scale plantation, which has the objective of increasing the proportion of selected native species in the long-term, is the first of its kind in the country. In addition, the project produces sustainable rubber and forest honey and has its own tree nurseries and seed banks, which are stocked with a variety of indigenous species, most of which were collected from the natural forests of the region.

CDM Project Development

EBP is working to register the project under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol at the United Nations climate change secretariat in Bonn. This work includes the preparation of comprehensive documentation, the provision of evidence that the primary goal of the project is climate change mitigation, and the calculations that demonstrate the CO2 sequestration that will result from the biomass growth, as compared to a reference scenario in the absence of the project.

Project Monitoring

EBP is also responsible for monitoring and reporting on the CO2-sequestration performance of the project. To that end, EBP produces annual monitoring reports for Novartis, as well as one report every five years for the UN climate secretariat, which will be used for the issuance of emissions reductions certificates.

EBP has been with the project since its inception in 2013, with the effort to identify suitable farms for the reforestation efforts, and will continue to work on monitoring the climate impacts of the project in the future.

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