Protecting highly threathened Araucaria forest by designing a mechanism for small landowners to enter the carbon market

The project area is located in the southwest of Paraná state, near the city of Iratí. The original ecosystem type in this area is Atlantic forest, or, more specifically, Araucária forest, but much of these forests have been lost. The most important causes of the loss of Araucária forest are erosion and pollution by agriculture, expansion of the agricultural frontier, invasive species, (illegal) natural resource extraction and hunting. The proposal also describes how farmers are in a vicious circle of converting forest land to agriculture, seeing it degrade and lose productivity as a consequence of erosion, and converting more. Studies have shown that there is almost no Araucária forest left in Paraná state and the Auracária tree itself (araucaria angustifolia) is listed as a critically endangered species on the IUCN Red List. SPVS has been working in the project area for several years, currently on a programme on avoided deforestation. This programme offers companies the opportunity to contribute to the conservation of Araucária forest and avoid CO2 emissions from deforestation, by paying for the maintenance and management of the forests. For most companies, this is a way of showing their commitment to conservation and their intention to reduce CO2 emissions, but in some cases they use their contribution to compensate for the carbon emissions of specific projects or branches of the company. At this point, 1400 ha. of Araucária forest are being protected under this programme, but only properties larger than 100 ha. can be considered. The overall goal of the project supported by EGP is to protect smaller, high quality patches of standing Araucária forests, by offering owners of properties smaller than 100 ha., the opportunity to enter the carbon scheme as well. The objectives of this project are, first of all, to do a feasibility study on the possibilities of including small properties in the existing avoided deforestation programme. Activities under this objective include a comparison of SPVS methodologies and current standards on the voluntary carbon market (CCB and VCS), an analysis of the feasibility of certification of carbon credits on small properties and the development of a business plan. The second objective is to make an inventory of the properties in the project area, which will include activities such as mapping and zoning, field visits for selection and monitoring of the properties to be included in the scheme, setting up a database and designing a project portfolio. The last objective is to find and existing legal entity, probably a cooperation, which is able and willing to commercialize the carbon sequestrated in the forests of the participating land owners. This objective also includes the design of a strategy for future (financial) sustainability of the project. By the end of the project, at least 100 ha. of Araucária forest should be protected under the scheme. It is expected that this project will generate indispensable on-the-ground information on the ability of carbon markets to reduce emissions from deforestation while protecting biodiversity and delivering social benefits. If successful, the model could be replicated in other areas.