Profafor, Ecuador

Partners: Profafor SA and the Face Foundation
Project sites: 160 contracts in the Andean region
Project lifetime: 20 or 99 years
Goal: CO2 sequestration by afforesting secondary pramo grasslands
Project category: Afforestation
Status: AIJ-registered; potentially CDM compliant; validated and verified (SGS)

Contact us:
http://www.facefoundation.nl - info@facefoundation.nl - +31 26 3570770
http://www.profafor.com - profafo1@uio.satnet.net - +593 22 257016

Profafor(Programa Face de Forestación)

was set up to afforest degraded páramo grasslands in collaboration with the Ecuadorian government and farming communities. These landowners have a say in species selection and they prefer planting no indigenous pine and eucalypt species. To help Profafor to comply with sustainability criteria and to explore the potential of indigenous species, in 1996 the research program Ecopar was initiated in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam and local organisations.
Ecopar has developed to become a leading research organisation active in the Andes.

Currently, Propafor works on the implementation of existing contracts with beneficiaries in the Sierra. This focuses on the improvement of management procedures and the management of a large number of contracts. As it is a participatory program, the landowners and Indian communities do most of the planting work themselves while Profafor provides the planting material and technical assistance.
Through Profafor, the Face Foundation owns the CO2 credits, while the forests and all the other proceeds remain with the landowners.

Profafor is also working as a consultancy firm in the forestry and certification sectors in Ecuador.

Certification:

The project has obtained an FSC group certificate for sustainable forest management. Profafor is the group managers. SGS also issued a Certificate of Project Design after testing the program against criteria formulated in the Kyoto Protocol and the Marrakech Accords.
(www.sgs.com)

Monitoring of the program is a collaborative effort of the Face Foundation, the Institute of Forest Ecosystem Research (Czech Republic), EcoCiencia (Ecuador) and Profafor.
(www.ifer.cz; www.ecociencia.org)

Carbon sequestration potential

Maximum:
180 t CO2 ha-1 (adjusted for risks and uncertainties)

Average storage capacity (100 years):
100 t CO2 ha-1 (adjusted)

Average carbon sequestration rate:
3 - 10 t CO2 ha-1 yr-1 during the first 20 years (adjusted)

This project is already used by ClimaCount for CO2 compensation