Through our certification with The Planet Mark, we are pleased to share that our carbon footprint is progressively decreasing and while we are on our Net Zero journey, we also strongly believe in our ethical and environmental responsibility to offset our carbon footprint.
We have approached Fenix Carbon, a marketplace for carbon reduction projects and invested in a programme very close to our hearts - reforestation in Colombia, which also contributes to a several UN Sustainability Goals, and along with sustainability investment, contributes to the economic growth in one of the poorest areas of the country.
The project is located in the collective territories of Sivirú, San Andrés de Usaragá, Pizarro, and Piliza in the Pacific coast of Colombia, belonging to the biodiverse Chocó-Darién bioregion, which has extremely high levels of rainfall and its moist forests are important nationally and internationally for the ecosystem services that they provide.
These forests have historically been an important source of income for local families, who periodically harvest timber and the forest subsequently experienced a continued reduction in biomass. Changes to law in 1991 resulted in the recognition of the ancestral presence and possession of lands by communities of African descent on the Pacific coast and subsequent legislation granted land title to these communities.
Following from the gradual degradation of forests caused by continual timber extraction, many forest areas are ultimately converted to agriculture and pasture. The project aims to alleviate these pressures on the forests through the support of governance capacity, the generation of alternative economic activities and income sources, and through capacity building in administration and management. The project, beyond protecting local forests and biodiversity, contribute to social and economic development in one of the poorest areas of Colombia.
