Successful certification of a smallholder reforestation project in Nicaragua

In January 2015, the project “Sustainable Forest Plantations” (see: http://www.climateprojects.info/NI-SFP/) has finally been certified after 4 years of hard work with the local partner organization Fundación Dia. The project is now certified for the former CarbonFix standard and will go into the transition phase in the coming month in order to get the GoldStandard certificate. Furthermore, the project will be upscaled with 200 ha of smallholder plantations in the next year. The local partner organisation will also integrate beekeeping activities and cocoa plantations around the homesteads. These activities will provide the short term cashflow that is crucial for smallholder farmers. In the longer term, the high value tree plantations will provide additional income from timber to the farmers.

The project is carried out in one of the driest and most degraded regions of Nicaragua (Pacific region) which has on of the highest deforestation rate in Latin America. These circumstances make the project challenging but extremely important. When upscaled, the project can help to reduce the desertification process, sand storms, soil degradation, the polution of ground water and and so on. ForestSense will continue working in the project, in close collaboration with the local partner Fundación Dia. Partner organisations in this project are: Municipality of Utrecht, LBSNN and ProClimate.