The Climate Trust Awards Contract to Conservation Groups to Capture Global Warming Pollution in Ecuador

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The Climate Trust Awards Contract to Conservation

Global Warming Pollution in Ecuador

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The Climate Trust Awards Contract to Conservation

Global Warming Pollution in Ecuador

The project slows global warming by reforesting

in one of Earth's most diverse rainforests with threatened rare native

PORTLAND, OREGON, May. 24 -/E-Wire/-- The Climate Trust Board of Directors has awarded a contract to Ecuador's Jatun Sacha Foundation and Conservation International. This is The Trust's first international carbon offset project. It captures and stores atmospheric carbon in a rainforest. The project uses carbon dioxide offset funds to replant native hardwood trees in Ecuador's northwest coast mountains. Conservation International considers this rainforest one of the five most threatened areas on Earth for biodiversity.

"We're excited to partner with these leading land conservation groups to provide permanent protection to an Ecuadorian rainforest where deforestation has worsened global warming," said Diana Bodtker, chair of The Climate Trust Board. Ecuador's coastal rainforest has suffered deforestation from population growth. Rivers that used to provide water for maintaining farm animals have dried up, and less than two percent of the rainforest remains.

The 680 acre project site includes highly degraded pasture and stunted vegetation on degraded soil. Over seven years, 15 native hardwood species will be planted in nurseries and transferred to the site for replanting. The site is part of the 7,400 acre Bilsa Biological Reserve, where the remnant forest supports a unique composition of flora and fauna, internationally renowned for both its diversity and rarity.

"Conservation International and the Jatun Sacha Foundation consider this award vital to protecting critical rainforest habitat and providing jobs and training to communities neighboring the Bilsa Biological Reserve," said Sonal Pandya, manager of Conservation International's Carbon Offsets Program.

Rare animals found at the reserve include the jaguar, several small cat species, the long wattled umbrella bird, the giant anteater and abundant populations of the threatened mantled howler monkey. The reserve's bird species diversity (about 330 species) is among the highest of any coastal site in Ecuador. A number of threatened birds live in the Bilsa Reserve, and some of the migratory bird species that breed in Bilsa spend part of their lives in Oregon forests. The on going botanical inventory at Bilsa has uncovered 30 plant species new to science.

Since 1996, the Jatun Sacha Foundation has operated the Center for the Conservation of Western Forest Plants at the Bilsa Reserve. The Center serves as a base for community extension and outreach programs emphasizing agroforestry, health, environmental education and the development of community management plans. Each year the Center produces approximately 100,000 tree saplings for use in reforestation projects in and around the reserve, including 80 species of tropical fruit and nut trees and 50 local mature forest woody species. (www.jatunsacha.org)

The Climate Trust is a nonprofit organization formed in 1997 in response to landmark Oregon legislation requiring new power plants to counter their global warming pollution. This innovative legislation limits the net amount of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) that a new power plant can release. Carbon dioxide is the primary gas leading to global warming. Power plant developers can comply with the standard by making a payment to The Climate Trust, which uses the funds for projects that reduce atmospheric CO2 levels. These projects are called offsets because they offset the release of CO2 from the new Oregon power plants.

Conservation International (CI) applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity in the hotspots, major tropical wilderness areas, and key marine ecosystems. With headquarters in Washington, D.C., CI works in more than 30 countries on four continents. (www.conservation.org)

Over 100 years, the site is expected to capture at least 65,000 metric tons of CO2. That's equal to a year's worth of emissions from 12,000 cars going 12,000 miles. "We're pleased to help permanently protect this ecologically rich site," said Mike Burnett, executive director of The Climate Trust. "Ecologically, our planet faces twin crises: ballooning carbon dioxide levels are threatening a runaway climate, and biodiversity is collapsing. This project uses funding aimed at solving the climate problem to solve the biodiversity problem as well."

Deforestation currently accounts for between 20 and 25 percent of annual human-induced CO2 emissions. Well-designed and implemented land use projects offer a scientifically valid approach to mitigating emissions of CO2 from the burning of fossil fuels or other industrial activities.

The Trust has completed contracting for offsets from four other projects with funding from the Klamath Cogeneration Project. These projects include renewable energy from wind and landfill gas, an Internet-based carpool matching service, and permanent forest sequestration in northwest Washington. "We're quite pleased with the portfolio of projects that The Trust has assembled," said Peter van Alderwerelt of PacifiCorp Power Marketing, the developers of the Klamath Cogeneration Project, which operates in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Further information about this and the other four offset projects is available at The Climate Trust Web site: http://www.climatetrust.org.

Conservation International;

http://http://www.climatetrust.org

http://http://www.jatunsacha.org

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