Plant trees
Savimbo works hard to be something called “additional” in the carbon market. This means that we don’t just stop deforestation, we also add forest. This removes carbon from the atmosphere, and actively reverses the negative effects of emissions on the atmosphere.
All the nerdy details...
Our trees have a lot more going for them than the average daffodil. We’re not only in the business of carbon removal, we sell carbon credits with holistic ecological benefits. That means all the good stuff too.
We use Sacco et al.’s paper Ten golden rules for reforestation to design all our reforestation plots. This includes conservation first, local collaborators, maximizing biodiversity, positive revenue streams and monitoring plans.
We plant no less than 5 native species per plot, and one of the species must be a food or crop tree selected by the farmer for its revenue potential.
Amazonian trees can grow very quickly and live for up to 300 years. The parts of the Amazon we work in often grow to full-standing-height within six years simply by removing cattle. So we design our tree plantations to aid in this regrowth, rather than replacing it. We also continually A/B test our plots to make sure that the trees we are planting have the maximum chances of survivability.
Our farmers are paid for initial planting, and again at 6 months and 1 year based on independent validators who count the trees. We pay local women to collect seeds from native jungle and provide seedlings from their homes where it provides an independent revenue stream while caregiving for young children.
We educate our farmers on the beneficial effect of monkeys and birds to eat fruit and spread seeds. By paying additional money for animal species monitored on reforested plots we encourage biodiversity and re-establish beneficial life cycles.
