Acre Amazon REDD+ Portfolio, Brazil

90% of Brazil’s Acre state is forested, but current rates of destruction mean by 2030 this could decline to 65%. 

This collection of three Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) projects aims to prevent deforestation across 105,000 hectares of pristine rainforest in the Amazon basin, protecting some of the world’s most biodiverse habitats. 

With the support of carbon finance, the projects work with communities and local groups to help protect ecosystem services while providing alternative models of economic development which avoid destruction of the forest.

Granting land tenure and providing agricultural training to prevent deforestation and promote sustainable economic livelihoods.

In addition to delivering approximately 360,000 tonnes of emission reductions each year, the project delivers a number of other sustainable development benefits. These include:

• No poverty: Strengthening business capacity through training, and plans to provide a boat for exporting goods, will further help communities lower their transaction costs and increase market access for their crops.
• Zero hunger: Families have been trained and will continue to have access to courses on how to grow bananas, chickpeas, cassava and corn; artisanal processing of fish; rearing organic pigs; and using rotational cattle pastures. The goal is to increase yields and help make these agricultural activities more profitable.
• Life on land: The project areas are part of a key habitat for several endangered and vulnerable species, while the proximity to other large intact forest areas increases overall habitat connectivity. The International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has identified a variety of plant and animal species in Acre that are either vulnerable or endangered, including the Woolly Monkey and Black-faced Monkey (both endangered), Goeldi’s Monkey (vulnerable), and 16 species of flora that are endangered or vulnerable but are currently protected through this project. Within the Acre project area specifically, Scarlet Macaw, Amazon River Dolphins, Squirrel Monkeys, and Great White Herons have also been observed.
• Good health and well-being: Communities living within the Acre project area have historically lacked access to adequate health services as a result of the remote location. To improve community livelihoods, the project has facilitated doctor visits from local towns on a periodic basis, known as the Itinerant Health Programme. The projects also plan to build local health centres and dental clinics, providing consistent local community access to improved medical facilities and services. The clinics will hire and train a local community member to provide basic first aid, and a small pharmacy will also be provided for basic medicine distribution.
• Quality education: The projects have hosted agricultural courses to support diversification of agricultural production and household income, while raising awareness of the benefits of avoided deforestation. To raise awareness of the importance of conservation in schools, lessons are being incorporated into educational programmes. The project aims to improve the quality of education for local youth through school infrastructure developments, such as building new classrooms to offer separate learning spaces for different grades.
• Decent work and economic growth: The projects have recruited workers from the local area to assist with the forest carbon inventory, regional deforestation and land-use modelling. Jobs are also created through the installation and monitoring of wildlife via wildlife camera traps and local project management, assisting delivery of project goals.
• Life below water: Located on the Purus, Jurua and Valparaiso Rivers, important tributaries of the Amazon, the projects incorporate important inland water ecosystems that provide benefits such as pollution and nutrient absorption and recycling, flood management, drinking water supply, and mitigation against the impacts of climate change. The Acre project is helping to rehabilitate degraded areas along the riverbank through reforestation activities, helping to combat riverbed erosion and polluting sediment levels in the water, while enhancing overall protection of watersheds through decreased deforestation.