"Disney" is for Fighting Deforestation in Peru

Newsflash from your Hollywood Attorney:

The world needs these dense tropical forests to absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen, which is one of many reasons environmental NGO Conservation International (CI) launched a REDD (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation) project here nearly five years ago.

Last year, the Alto Mayo REDD+ project was validated under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) as well as the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standard (CCB).

Before the project's validation, Disney, in a landmark move, donated $3.5 million to CI's work in Alto Mayo, contributing significantly to what the project has been able to achieve thus far.

The arc of deforestation

The story of the Alto Mayo REDD+ project began around 2008 and involves 419 farmers and their families as much as it does CI and Disney. At the time, Disney was looking to offset the environmental impact of their resorts by preserving a forest or ecosystem and had reached out to CI for suggestions. CI presented them with two nations containing endangered rainforest that needed saving: the Democratic Republic of Congo and Peru. Disney decided to start with Alto Mayo in Peru.

Agree and maintain

As part of the CA, Arcos says, each farmer was offered a technical package containing instructions for planting. The package discouraged using herbicides and included training on how to sow coffee in a way that’s compatible with the growth of native trees. The CA benefited the local people as much as it did the ecosystem. Their unsustainable farming practices had been depleting the soil, which forced farmers to relocate and cut down trees constantly in order to reach healthy soil.

Espinel also pointed out that because the farmers practiced sustainable agriculture, they avoided the devastating disease known as coffee rust that decimated 20 percent of Peru's total coffee production one year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Guevara and other farmers were able to improve production and avoid pests thanks to CI's REDD project. Along with the agricultural training the project provided, CI offered the local populations medical equipment, educational materials and jobs patrolling the forests. In return, the locals promised to participate in reforestation and not cut down the forest anymore.

Carbon truth

While VCS verified the carbon impacts, CCB also measures the project's effects on communities as well as on the local plant and animal life. The standard confirmed the local life had improved with the REDD project and the CAs. This means 420 species of birds and 50 species of mammals, including the yellow-tailed woolly monkey found only in the Peruvian Andes, benefitted.

So far, the project has generated 3 million tons of emissions reductions, the equivalent of taking 500,000 cars off the roads for one year, according to Espinel. Disney's contribution resulted in a 400,000-ton reduction of carbon emissions, helping to shrink the giant companies' ecological footprint.

Disney has agreed, as part of its environmental commitments, to another grant of $3.5 million to CI's work in Alto Mayo. Disney is also considering showing films about Alto Mayo on their cruise ships.

Caring for the green and water

"It supplies water to many communities living in the vicinity," he says.

The Alto Mayo ecosystem supplies the 200,000 people living in this vicinity with clean water that they use in their homes as well as to water their crops. The area is replenished with rainwater that runs over trees and through the grooves of lush hills to fill the entire ecosystem. Cutting down the trees deprives the forest, and perhaps those who live around it, of a full life.

Dispel the mist

Trees also create a home for those 420 bird species and 50 mammal types as well as amphibians, reptiles and insects. As in many of Disney's well-known films, man and animal should care for the Earth responsibly.

As for Guevara, the changes still seem exciting and he is eager to discuss how his way of life and farming techniques have been transformed.

Read More.... http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2013/07/15/why-disney-fighting-deforestation-peru

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