An Overview Of Our Solution
In a maximum of 875 characters, please give an overview of your enGreen Farm CO2FREE looks into financing project activities that can contribute to create life. Porto Belo Farm used to be a ranch with thousands of cattle. At Porto Belo Farm the project introduced breeding of wild animals - especially those threaten by extinction, nurseries for native and introduced tree species, rehabilitation of degraded areas and wild animals from traffic, farming of pollinators and others. Those activities intend to collaborate with the federal protected area it surrounds and its neighbors. The project includes children as a fundamental part of its activities; it develops specific activities for enjoyment, recreation and education, looking into creating a bond between them and the ecosystem aroundtry including the problem, the solution and actions implemented.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Suburban
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: South America
General Information
Organization type
Corporación/Sector Privado
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Forests
Freshwater
Oceans/Coasts
Population impacted
230,000
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
4,650 ha
Production quantity
40,000 tCO2e/year; 12 billion le; 1,4 million wild species / year
People employed
35
Solution
Describe your solution
Green Farm CO2FREE (www.greenfarmco2free.com.br) developed the prime property fraction concept to conservation, creating a CSR club for participating companies. With that approach at finance, it invests on providing ecosystem services to participating companies, including carbon, water, biodiversity, green marketing and others. At Porto Bonito Farm, the project promotes wildlife breeding, wild animals rehabilitation and releasing, recovering of fisheries, seed selection, nursery and planting of native trees species of local occurrence, farming of pollinators, rehabilitation of scenic beauty, environmental education and recreation for visitors, partners, participating companies, students and others. Porto Bonito was first approached in 2008 – it used to be a cattle ranch, and in 2012 the project started accepting participants. Staff is trained to measure, report and verify MRV the environmental credits being generated from management practices, as the forest carbon credits. The project promotes reforestation at grassland and degraded areas to restore biodiversity and increase carbon sequestration and storage, generating forest carbon credits. Those credits transferred to participating companies. All process registered independently at the Mato Grosso State Platform for Business with Environmental and Ecosystem Goods and Services (www.pnbsae.com.br).
Implementation
Describe your implementation
nursery that produces 300,000 seedlings of native tree species annually, include fruit producing trees whose products are the main contributor to the feeding of wild animals. Excess product is to families of the settlers’’ population in the region (~3,500 families). The farm has facilities for the conservation, rehabilitation, and breeding of wild animals, licensed by IBAMA, houses animals that are treated and monitored until they achieve the condition that allows placement into their natural habitat. A nursery for the rehabilitation of birds with a 2000 m2 facility designated for the recovery of birds at risk of extinction including flight training. A 5000m2 habitat for Jacarés, an endangered species of the Brazilian "yellow" alligator. (Similar facilities exist for several other endangered species). A designated habitat for the procreation, training, and release of the largest bird of prey in Brazil, the Harpy Eagle which is at "high-risk" of extinction. Laboratories and outpatient care facilities directed by veterinarians for care of animals and data-collection for government sponsored and independent research. Fish-hatchery implemented to increase the population of endangered fish species in the Paraná and Amambaí rivers. Circa of 1.2 million fish are released annually. Infrastructure includes roads, bridges, warehouses, machinery, vehicles, sheds, boats, laboratories, tanks, etc. There is a project’s aircraft available for prebooked flights with 1011 meters of runway asphalt. Fleet complete with shuttle service to/from hotels in the region. Main house is equipped with comfortable accommodations, office facilities, Wi-Fi and state of the art classrooms. Prepared socioenvironmental education programming. Ferry completely environmentally friendly, 100% biodiesel powered with solar panels for electrical supply, toilet with station and wastewater treatment, fits up to 40 people comfortably for practical lessons along the river banks that surround the project
External connections
Green Farm CO2FREE has received UN recognition (UNFCCC), and became part of the Private Sector Initiative (PSI) model. The Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA). The Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) is linked to the Ministry of Environment and integrates the National Environmental System (Sisnama). The Business Platform for environmental goods and services and the ecosystems of Mato Grosso - PNBSAE / MT - the main goal is to
facilitate companies' access to projects designed to mitigate climate change by providing a service that ensures transparency, reliability, traceability and credibility for the traded carbon credits. CORIPA an inter-municipal consortium for the
conservation of the Paraná River and areas of influence. PROANTA program for the protection and preservation of the Brazilian Tapir in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The Tapir is currently listed as "vulnerable to extinction," "endangrered," "critically endangered," and "extinct" in various South American biomes. Some 30 companies participating at the CSR club. Green Farm provide inventory on ecosystem services impacts to participating companies and employs a MRV methodology to generate ecosystem services credits, all of which are licensed by IBAMA, ICMBIO, state and local environmental organizations and registered at the plataform in Mato Grosso.
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
Within the region, there is 99% deforestation due to agriculture (soya, sugar cane etc) and farming (cattle). All neighbors in similar situation drained their properties` wetlands for agriculture and farming. Porto Belo Farm, where the Green Farm CO2FREE project is currently operating, is located at the buffer zone from Ilha Grande National Park. The Park is under pressure from land use change, including ranching, fishing and other illegal activities. Fisheries` population depletion and sand banks along Parana River, which surrounds the property, are results of poor soil conservation and biodiversity cultivation practices. Species like Harpia eagle and Mutum de Penacho have disappeared from the Park and the region and others are threatened.
Describe the context in which you are operating
The municipality of Itaquiraí, and the project, is located, is located in the Iguatemi Zone (ZIG) of the Economic and Ecological Zoning of Mato Grosso do Sul (ZEE / MS), in the extreme south of the State, bordering Parana State by Parana River. Twenty municipalities in the Zone, 350,000 inhabitants, total area of 30,000 km2. Biome of the Atlantic Forest with Various anthropomorphisms, leaving only fragments. The River Basin has high demand concentration for water usage, manly for irrigation and urban supply. The water resources within the region receive a large charge of Industrial effluents, the transport of sediments from erosion processes and agricultural pesticides. Livestock farming predominates with progressive implementation of industrial enterprises, such as sugar and alcohol mills. The EEZ recommends for the region the economic activities that observe the natural conditions and the regional historical tradition, that propitiate in its productive cycles the aggregation of processes that promote the recovery of parts of the Biome
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
The project reached a public of 208,000 viewers at all media in 2016, since 2012, 23,362 visitors (90% children) where at the facilities learning about biodiversity and ecosystem services farming, some 1,4 million tCO2e have been pre-inventoried, some 40,000 tCO2e have been registered and transferred to participating companies which now use CO2FREE stamp at their corporate materials. More than 300 billion liters of water have been incorporated clean to Parana river basin. Almost 4 million individuals of fish, mastofauna, herpetofauna and avifauna released back into nature. Currently the farm has some 500,000 pollinator bees. The project implemented facilities at Porto Belo Farm and developed MRV methodologies for biodiversity credits creation from 5 endangered species. Close to 1 million trees from native species of local occurrence were planted within Porto Belo Farm, neighbors, cities and distributed to local farmers interested on reforestation.
Water
The project monitors rain volumes and measures its contribution related to the production of green and blue water. This measure is part of the MRV methodology used to produce water credits for companies operating within the same water basin.
Food Security/Nutrition
The project implemented agroforestry systems with pepper, palm heart, coffee, cocoa and others as demonstrative units to small landholders, in order to promote environmental friendly production system for food security
Economic/Sustainable Development
The project invests on farms at surrounding areas of federal conservation units, promoting their appreciation towards investments on activities that rehabilitate, maintain and improve ecosystem services provision. It also invests on developing, implementing, measuring, reporting and verifying ecosystem services credits to supply ISO 26000 company`s CSR compliance.
Climate
Preliminary forest carbon inventories estimated some 1,4 million tCO2e within the whole property. Some 20,000 from an Eucalyptus plantation and other 20,000 from a native forest management project were already registered and transferred to participating companies using CO2FREE stamp
Sustainability
he project is a market-based solution with revenue coming from the selling of participation cotas to companies. Participating companies are usually interested on developing high impact CSR activities. Selling of shares allows the project to finance implementation and maintenance of activities at Porto Bonito Farm. The value of each share varies according with the company environmental impacts, and thus its demands of ecosystem services credits.
Return on investment
Green Farm CO2FREE offices employ some 25 people in Sao Paulo and Itaquirai, while the COO at Porto Bonito Farm has 35 staff to run daily activities. Total investments on facilities and adaptation are around US$ 2 million and annual maintenance costs around US$ 250,000, making it a US$ 3,8 million investment at 2017. Annual revenues of 40 participating companies’ shares total some US$ 300,000 as of January 2017. The project is reaching a breaking even point in terms of current costs but needs to perform much better in order to allow return of investment and further investments on new properties
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Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
The Green Farm CO2FREE project can become a fund of funds, each of the funds providing investments for biodiversity and ecosystem services adaptation for farmers with properties surrounding federal conservation units and major water bodies. The Global Conservation Standard GCS, a German NGO, developed a certification scheme to verify contribution of properties surrounding conservation units in terms of increasing resilience at territorial scale. The Green Farm CO2FREE project can become a global platform, dedicated to providing services to individuals, companies and public sector on evaluating their ecosystem services impacts and investing on high impact conservation projects on the field to generate compensation to those impacts.