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$0

/metric ton of CO₂e

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BR

Brazil

140,433 ha

Pacajá Pará

Avoided Unplanned Deforestation

Support riverside communities and preserve key jaguar habitat from conversion to commodity crops in the Amazon Rainforest

$0

/metric ton of CO₂e

Available via direct sales only
Overview

Pacajá Pará

BR

Brazil

140,433 ha

Developer: Ecológica Assessoria

Avoided Unplanned Deforestation

The “Fazenda Pacajá” is located on private property in the Northeast Amazon. Started in 2017, this project protects the native vegetation from deforestation and degradation through sustainable forest management, reduced impact logging, and regulated minimum cutting cycles. In doing so, it serves as an ecological corridor, helps fund community services, and provides alternative income opportunities through the sustainable use of natural resources and forest by-products.

Registry

Verra Logo

Registry ID: 2558

Certifications

Social Carbon Logo

Methodology

VM0015v1.1

Pachama's project evaluation criteriaPachama rigorously evaluates every project listed on our marketplace to ensure that we're surfacing only the highest quality projects. Our Evaluation Criteria includes a series of checks that every project must pass as well as a number of informative insights on project quality. You can see a preview of these checks below.

01

Accurate

The project's emissions reductions have been conservatively quantified

  • Baseline

    The reported baseline emissions are less than or equal to Pachama's observed baseline emissions. There are some variations based on project type.

  • Past Project Emissions

    The reported emissions inside the project area are greater than or equal to Pachama's observed emissions.

  • Carbon Inventory

    The project estimated their carbon stocks using a field inventory or remote sensing approach that was statistically representative of the project area, and their carbon stock estimate included a confidence interval and had <15% standard error.

02

Additional

Emissions reductions would not have occurred without the incentive of carbon credits

  • Project Boundary

    The boundary has not been artificially manipulated to increase crediting.

  • Financial and Legal Additionality

    There was no funding for carbon project activities in the 10 years prior to the project start date, and there were no legal requirements for emissions reductions or removals.

  • Improved Forest Management Projects Only

    Forest Maturity

    The crediting period must extend at least 25% beyond the age of economic maturity for at least half of the project area.

  • Reforestation Projects Only

    Forest Cover

    There must be no deforestation within the project area and existing forest cover must be less than 10% in the 10 years prior to project start date.

03

Durable

The project delivers a long-lasting climate impact ensured by continuous monitoring and reporting

  • Recent Project Emissions

    Pachama observed project emissions are less than the leakage-adjusted baseline meaning the project continues to provide a net climate benefit since their last credit issuance.

  • Fire Risk

  • Other Natural Risks

  • Buffer Pool

04

Net

The project hasn't simply moved deforestation from one place to another, producing no net climate benefit

  • Leakage Summary

    Pachama currently examines and summarizes leakage calculations from registry-verified documents. Accounting for leakage is an inherently complex challenge with a range of methodologies. Pachama is using satellite observations to develop a consistent and easy-to-understand approach to quantifying leakage.

05

Beyond Carbon

The project causes no net harm and delivers biodiversity and community benefits

  • Free, Prior, Informed Consent

    The project sufficiently demonstrated proper community engagement and consultation, and a grievance and redress mechanism is in place.

  • Certifications

  • Forest Management

  • Reforestation Projects Only

    Ecological Impacts

    For reforestation projects, the forest composition must be a majority native species, there must be at least 5 different species planted, and the species assemblage and density should be similar to what would typically be found in the local ecoregion.

1/5

Tech-verified evaluationEvery forest project listed on the Pachama Marketplace must align with our Evaluation Criteria to ensure we're surfacing only the highest quality projects. To assess a forest project, Pachama uses remote sensing to review a variety of factors including forest cover loss in and around the project area. This project passes our emissions quality checks because the reported emissions are in line with what Pachama observed.

Contains modified data from Hansen Global Forest Change v1.9 (2001-2021).

Visual Description

The figure above shows the project area outlined in white, and observed forest loss in red. The project has been active since 2017. Pachama analyzes forest loss data and removes false positives during our project evaluation process.

Project story
Supporting sustainable forest management in an extremely remote area

Prior to the project’s start, Pacajá’s Sustainable Forest Management Plan was causing financial losses to the farm. However, the owner, who has held the land since 1979, felt a personal drive to safeguard it from cattle ranching and illegal logging regardless of those challenges. After creating a new and more stringent environmental plan to mitigate damage and protect old growth, a specialized internal team was formed to monitor the farm, and local communities were consulted to initiate alternative revenue streams. By 2020, the farm had received the Cerflor certification (Brazilian Forest Certification Program) signifying commitment to responsible operation.

Production and transport planning now ensures the least possible impact and each tree is tagged to facilitate inventory flow and chain of custody all the way to the consumer. Revenue from carbon credits is essential to pay for the increased costs of the new SFMP operations and community activities as well as to compete with profitable, alternative land use scenarios.

This project is laser-focused on alternative revenue streams. Pacajá Furniture, started in 2019, uses forest waste (branches, treetop pieces, hollow trunks) to create rustic furniture that keeps its original shape. Ultimately, this will generate employment for the local community and alternative revenue for both the project and local stakeholders.

40.2M

tons of CO2e reductions over the 30-year project lifetime.

~10%

of entire planet’s biodiversity is found in the project region.

The project supports the economic development of local communities through the sustainable use of natural resources.

The project supports the economic development of local communities through the sustainable use of natural resources.

Impacts beyond carbon

Involving communities directly in project design for a holistic approach to local development

The project currently serves five local communities, but plans to gradually expand to include thirteen. Many live on the banks of rivers, isolated from outside cultural influences and even other community members (distance between residences can be over 1.2 miles). The project celebrates and encourages the traditional livelihoods of these communities, reconnecting them with habits for fishing, preparing manioc flour, and selling chestnuts. They promote benefit sharing with local stakeholders so that owners are invested in pursuing long-term sustainable development. Future planned community activities include training for female audiences, formal health monitoring, and construction of a library. The project aligns with a number of the UN Sustainable Development Goals:
No Poverty image

01

No Poverty

Introducing new forms of income and food to the community, such as raising chicken and fish, biscuit production, and furniture manufacturing to promote the independence of communities from illegal logging.

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Quality Education image

04

Quality Education

Developing educational programs around agroforestry, sustainability, crafts, and finances. These are all topics directly advocated for by local community members so the project can be confident it is providing services that are most important to those who live there.

Learn more

Decent work and economic growth image

08

Decent work and economic growth

Generating employment for the local community through forest surveillance work and training in reduced impact extraction, occupational health and safety, first aid, and firefighting.

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Life on land image

15

Life on land

Conducting Fauna monitoring reports to provide a clear picture of the area’s rich biodiversity. The project is also constructing a nursery for seedling production and supporting the implementation of several local aviaries for protection of exotic and endemic species.

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biodiversity
An extremely at-risk part of the Amazon

The area is rich in rivers and includes many threatened and endemic species. The Brazilian Ministry for the Environment classified the project as a priority area for conservation with neighboring municipalities having the highest deforestation rate within the Amazon in recent years, partly due to lack of economic alternatives. The project conducted a fauna monitoring report to evaluate and understand subsequent changes and the project’s impact on local biodiversity, The project recently received a certificate from the Instituto Onça Pintada (IOP) for rural producers whose sustainable practices contribute to the conservation of the Jaguar (onça pintada). The flora also features exotic species, such as the water lily and dozens of species of bromeliads.

biodiversity image
  • 2,000

    Fish species in Pará

  • 950

    Bird species in Pará

  • 300

    Mammal species in Pará

Cacao image
tree spotlight
Cacao

The cacao tree is native to the Amazon rainforests and produces the main ingredient in chocolate. When intercropped with other useful crops, cacao can create agroforestry systems that provide alternative economic returns to farmers and diversify their livelihood options.

how this project helps

Cacao has been planted on 14 hectares of degraded pasture as a pilot project to see if it can renew the soil while generating an alternative revenue stream.

Tamarin Monkey image
animal spotlight
Tamarin Monkey

Tamarins are squirrel-sized monkeys native to the Southwest Amazon basin. They live in a variety of wooded habitats generally in extended family groups of two to eight and are at risk of losing their habitats to deforestation.

how this project helps

The project monitors an extensive amount of fauna to keep track of animals that live in adjacent biological communities. This allows them to evaluate and understand changes and put plans into practice to minimize and reduce environmental disturbances.

project files

  • Project Description

    pdf

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