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Why Plan Vivo?

The Plan Vivo System for carbon management and rural livelihoods has been internationally recognised as one of the most credible carbon offset initiatives of its type. It supports the following project types: forest restoration; agroforestry/small plantations; forest protection and management; soil conservation and agricultural improvement.  

Plan Vivo works very closely with rural communities, emphasising ongoing stakeholder participation.  Its flexible framework means that activities planned and implemented by farmers and communities themselves can be evaluated for their ability to offset carbon emissions. Farmers and communities in Uganda, Mozambique and Mexico are able to receive carbon finance, which they would otherwise be unable to access through conventional means, to improve agroforestry systems and to restore and protect natural forests.

Farmers and communities are assisted to develop more sustainable land management and better livelihoods through their provision of carbon services, thereby contributing to poverty reduction.  This framework ensures that sustainability and biodiversity conservation work hand in hand, enabling communities in developing countries to invest in their own future.

Above all the aim is to reliably sequester carbon for the long term in systems that are economically viable, and socially and environmentally responsible, maintain projects which include procedures for internal monitoring and external verification, and promote management systems which are designed to be applicable to most other developing countries.

The Plan Vivo System is one of the two land use standards endorsed in the Carbon Trust’s guide for voluntary offsetting.  According to a recent report by WWF, "Plan Vivo is a small standard organisation that works closely with rural communities.  Because of the grass-roots approach of Plan Vivo, conservation and community benefits are very high, …".

Verification costs are often an insurmountable barrier for small offset projects in the developing world. For that reason, Plan Vivo allows their projects to become initially registered based on a project review by experts in forestry and carbon sequestration, carbon accounting, and the local ecosystem. The projects then use carbon finance from initial offset sales to support a mandatory, third-party verification process that scales over time based on project growth. While the Plan Vivo Foundation seeks to keep verification costs low so that communities benefit more, they still use high standards to approve local verifiers. The Plan Vivo Foundation only approves verifiers that:

· Have appropriate experience and expertise in forestry and carbon sequestration projects;

· Have appropriate experience working in developing countries;

· Have documented experience in verifying GHG reductions and using sustainability metrics;

· Are accredited by an international certification authority such as the CDM, ISO, California Climate Action Registry, FSC or other forestry certification programs.

Through this innovative and affordable verification scheme, the Plan Vivo Foundation seeks to transfer the maximum possible benefit to the communities implementing the project.

If you would like to offset all or part of your carbon footprint (or why not become carbon negative and offset a bit extra?), go to our carbon calculator or, if you already know the amount you wish to offset, straight to the shopping cart.

Our carbon credits come from these Plan Vivo projects:

Scolel Te, Mexico

Scolel Té {‘the tree that grows”} is the original Plan Vivo project. It now includes over 2000 families of indigenous Mayan and mestizo farmers in 30 communities in central and northern Chiapas and communities in the northeast of Oaxaca.

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Trees for Global Benefit, Uganda

Improvement  and diversification of farm incomes and increased access to fuelwood and building materials. The project is working with established groups of farmers to plan agroforestry and small scale

plantations.

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