Technical Assistance to the Scolel'te Plan Vivo Project, Mexico

AMBIO’s Scolel’te programme in south-eastern Mexico is one of the oldest and longest running community forest carbon capture programs, and the first to be certified under the Plan Vivo Standard. Operating since 1997, the program sequesters carbon and reduces emissions through forest restoration and agroforestry interventions across an area of over 9,500 hectares. Community participation from the project’s onset has ensured that the project’s agroforestry and restoration interventions are appropriate for the local population, and carbon credits generated by the program are complemented with improved livelihood and capacity development activities.

The project’s original technical specifications developed in 2002 set out an ex-ante calculation and sale of carbon certificates under an early version of the Plan Vivo standard. In 2020 TLLG supported AMBIO to update their technical specification for their temperate climate forest restoration intervention under the 2013 version of the Plan Vivo Standard.

The Small-Holder Agriculture Monitoring and Baseline Assessment (SHAMBA) approved approach was applied to calculate an ex-post estimation of carbon certificates generated since 2012 and ex-ante estimation of carbon certificates that would result from activities continuing until the end of 2021.

SHAMBA is a greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting methodology for agroforestry and tree planting interventions, designed to work with small holder agricultural systems. It can be used for both ex-ante (for project planning, prediction) and ex-post (for monitoring) climate benefit estimation.

Photo: Monitoring tree height at project site under forest restoration © AMBIO

Funder: AMBIO

Standard: Plan Vivo

Location: Chiapas and Oaxaca Regions, Mexico

Period: Aug 2020