Carbon Balance Initiative
a vital step to becoming part of the solution
Offset your carbon emissions while you travel, enjoy and support the conservation of nature during your experience with us.
Neotropical Nature & Birding Trips’s initiative, as a responsible tour operator, has implemented the Carbon Balance program to enable concrete efforts to address and reduce the drivers of climate change. This initiative enables individuals and organizations to offset their residual greenhouse gas emissions through the protection and restoration of carbon-rich wildlife habitats in the tropics. This is possible thanks to an strategic partnership with different conservation organizations and local landowners involved in conservation tourism who run their own reserves in the areas where we operate our trips, allowing us to collaborate in the efforts to develop tourism in a sustainable manner.
How does it work?
About 42% to 50% of a tree’s biomass (dry matter) is carbon. Atmospheric carbon dioxide (C02) is absorbed by trees through photosynthesis, and is stored in organic matter (biomass-wood). CO2 returns to the atmosphere through the plant’s respiration and by decomposition of dead organic matter in soils (oxidation). Carbon sequestration takes place mostly while the trees develop to reach maturity, increasing the time it takes for that carbon to make its way back to the atmosphere. This is why reforestation is a powerful tool to achieve the balance we seek between development and conservation.
Reducing our carbon footprint through habitat restoration or “carbon sequestration” aids dramatically in the removal of carbon from the atmosphere and its subsequent storage by trees and shrubs while restoring soils and avoiding erosion. Neotropical Nature & Birding Trips works directly with small land owners that are involved in conservation tourism. The majority of these properties were previously used for slash and burn farming, or for cattle grazing; due to the topography and weather conditions the soils were depleted of nutrients as they got “naked”. With the development of low impact tourism as an economically viable alternative, landowners have committed to dedicating their land to conservation and habitat restoration. By choosing this path they can sustain their families, improve their life quality, and secure conditions that allow the achievement of long term environmental goals, including a clean water supply, soil quality and biodiversity protection.
By working directly with local green houses we warrant the use of native species that will thrive in the area; our partnership with the landowners ensures a higher survival rate of each tree since they will care for the plants and protect them from being cut for firewood. Destining the land to reforestation avoids the use of herbicides and pesticides typically used in farming, protecting the integrity and natural microbiome of the soil.
Calculating your carbon emissions
If you fly to your destination
Flights produce greenhouse gases – mainly carbon dioxide (CO2) – from burning fuel, which contribute to global warming when released into the atmosphere.
On average, a plane produces a little over 0.53 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) per mile.
– First estimate the total number of miles you travel by plane during your round trip.
– Then, multiply that value times 0.53. This allows you to calculate the number of metric tonnes of CO2 produced during your flight.
– The calculated cost of neutralizing one metric tonne of CO2 is $35.50. This value includes the cost of the trees grown in local green houses (native species like Aliso (Andean Alder), Oak, Ceder, Walnut), and of the staff required during the operation, reforestation and land restoration process
About Radiative forcing in the calculator :
The increased warming effect other, non-CO2 emissions, such as nitrogen oxides, have when they are released at high altitudes can also make a significant difference to emissions calculations.
“The climate effect of non-CO2 emissions from aviation is much greater than the equivalent from other modes of transport, as these non-CO2 greenhouse gases formed at higher altitude flights persist for longer than at the surface and also have a stronger warming potential,” Eloise Marais, from the Atmospheric Composition Group.
Monitoring and verification of carbon storage
In order to meet the global climate change targets the only path to success is to include negative CO2 emissions strategies. It is essential for us to structure an offset mechanism to be real, quantifiable, permanent, verifiable, and enforceable.
The implementation of this program provides incentives for maintaining and increasing the amount of carbon sequestered in the biosphere while simultaneously pursuing socio-economic and environmental goals, that encourage participation by diverse important actors. By applying this initiative landowners now have many different motivations for keeping their forested land forested, they are now interested in the inherent beauty of the landscape and the biodiversity occurring in the forest, which is the reason why visitors, students, researchers, photographers and the general public are interested in visiting these new protected reserves for nature. This represents a long term income to sustain their families and the local economy.
Geographic Information System (GIS) for reforestation assessment
This powerful tool (GIS) provides interactive maps that will be used to assess conditions through historical analysis of land-use practices and the reforestation progress. Modeling enables donors to track the regeneration process of the habitat where they planted the donated trees. When participating in one of our tours, donors may have the opportunity to experience and witness first hand the planting of one tree in the area were the donated trees will set their roots for the following centuries.
The GIS tool will allow donors to keep track of the status of the reforested areas and make sure that the efforts for habitat restoration are bearing fruit. Donors have the right to inspect the property every time they wish at a mutually agreeable time.
Our mid-term goal: Landscape Connectivity - Biological Corridors
Landscape connectivity is vital to facilitate the movements of organisms and the conservation of biodiversity of some of the world’s most ecologically sensitive regions. The Threats from both fragmentation and habitat loss significantly reduce the size and quality of available resources to sustain populations, and disrupt their movement to new habitats or feeding zones. This adds to the pressures and challenges that face these populations with detrimental affects that include a decrease on their resilience, loss of genetic variation, and ultimately species extinction.
The Future
Planting billions of trees across the world is one of the biggest and cheapest ways of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists.
