Contribution project

Healthy forest instead of pastures

Uruguay, Guanaré

ClimatePartner ID: 1184

Project details

AfforestationGet to know the project

The project in the eastern part of Uruguay covers about 22,000 hectares of land. The aim of the project is to convert grassland, degraded by grazing, into forest. This allows the previously intensively used soil to regenerate. In the future, it will be able to store more water and nutrients and will be less at risk from soil erosion.

The resulting forest areas will be sustainably managed according to the FSC guidelines. They produce high-quality, long-lasting wood products and at the same time bind large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The reforestation of the VCS-verified project will store about 7 million tonnes of CO₂ over the project lifetime.

127,416 t CO₂Estimated annual emissions reductions

Project Standard

The project contributes to the the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals

How does reforestation/afforestation/revegetation contribute to climate action?

Forests are essential in our lives and are among the planet's most important carbon sinks. Besides providing habitats for wildlife, they filter the air, stabilise and protect soils, store water, and contribute to the balance of our climate. However, global forest areas have declined sharply in recent decades due to increasing settlements, agriculture, illegal logging, and raw material extraction. Afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation activities significantly increase a forest’s carbon storage capacity in both the biomass of the forest and in the soil. The storage capacity varies according to the tree species, age, and location. Experts distinguish these activities in the following way:

Afforestation converts non-forested areas into forest ones. Reforestation restores forest areas that have been damaged or deforested in the past. Revegetation increases the vegetation through planting trees, shrubs, or other plants.

The project aims to contribute to these United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Project facts

Climate projects generally fall into one of three groups: carbon reduction, carbon removal, or carbon avoidance. Carbon reduction projects reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by a specific activity (e.g., improved cookstoves). Carbon removal projects remove carbon from the atmosphere by sequestering it in carbon sinks (e.g., reforestation). Carbon avoidance projects avoid greenhouse gas emissions entering the atmosphere (e.g., protecting forests from deforestation with REDD+ projects).

All climate projects are based on international standards. They set processes and requirements which carbon projects must fulfill to be recognised as a proven method of reducing carbon emissions.

Climate projects demonstrably reduce, remove, or avoid greenhouse gas emissions. This is achieved with various technologies, ranging from nature-based solutions to social impact projects and renewable energies.

Most standards on the voluntary carbon market list their projects in public registries. The registries are used to store project data and track issuances and retirements of verified emission reductions. The registry ID can be used to identify projects in the standard registry.

Check out this project

Climate projects go through third-party validation and verification. Verification happens regularly after each monitoring period. A validation and verification body checks and assesses whether the values and project activities stated in the monitoring report are correct and verifies them. As with validation, visits to the project site are often part of the process.

Climate projects go through third-party validation and verification. Validation happens early in the project life cycle and ensures that the project design is in line with current processes and requirements. This phase often also involves field visits with on-site interviews and analyses. Auditors are accredited, impartial assessors who have to be approved as a validation and verification body (VVB) by the standards body.

This figure shows the estimated annual emission reductions calculated before the project started. The actual number of emissions saved in each monitoring period may differ. The background to this process is that in order to be registered as a climate project, the project operator must submit the calculation of the estimated emissions savings using the ex-ante methodology in a Project Design Document (PDD), which is similar to a business plan. This calculation is validated by an independent auditor. The values determined in the PDD are recalculated during regular monitoring periods based on actual project performance, documented in a monitoring report, and verified again by independent auditors at the end of the monitoring period to ensure a robust process. Independent verification thus provides ex-post verification of actual emission reductions. Verified emission reductions are not distributed until the savings have actually been made.

* For certified projects only: the project-related information on this page is based on the documents in the register.

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