This week ElevaFinca reviews the overall environmental strategy of the RioSierra project based in Colombia. Alejandro Angulo, our Forestry and Climate Change Specialist in Colombia, presents aspects of the RioSierra global strategy.
ElevaFinca highlights the commercial products which are sold by the participating producers associated with the RioSierra project in Colombia. If you would like to support these projects, the most impactful way to do so is to purchase coffee, cocoa, and honey products directly through ElevaFinca to continue financial investments and project support.
Conservations
Initial conversations were made with communities and organizations in the region of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, looking for allies within the conservation project. In these conversations, an analysis was made of the legal context related to land ownership, land use coverage, potential activities, and future opportunities to align projects carried out by RioSierra.
Biodiversity
Methodologies have been developed to provide methodological tools to study biodiversity, which is essential for the functioning and resilience of ecosystems and the ecosystem services they provide. These methodologies aim to develop a quick guide to carry out a biodiversity baseline, with its respective monitoring, which will be done in a participatory manner, considering the knowledge base of the community.
The biodiversity baseline constitutes the foundation for the realization of a diagnosis of conservation areas and will aim to provide guidelines for the characterization of environmental factors which will constitute a frame of reference for the collection of information in conservation areas of the projects of RioSierra in Colombia.
Audiovisual material, brochures, and tools have been provided to help implement the methodologies within participating communities.
Baseline
Key field information has been collected for the project on the members of the Ecolsierra Network and Apisierra. Through surveys and geo-referenced topographic surveys, information has been obtained that will allow better administration of the project, proposing tools for adequate management based on requirements of producers, local context, socio-ecological conditions, and incorporating the gender perspective in all activities to be developed.
Forest Industry
A consultancy is being developed to prepare a business plan for the timber value chain, including market analysis and research on the forest industry. This is expected to gather experience and documentation on the timber trade and production, considering the legal framework and the national and international context. This will be the basis for the development of designs for the forest harvesting plant, the financial studies of the business plan and the marketing plans for this part of Rio Sierra's corporate strategy.
Cocoa, from Seed to Bar
This consultancy will allow the development of a business plan for the Cocoa-Chocolates value chain, which will have the purpose of researching the market, with technical and productive information on this commodity, including financial and legal data that will allow establishing all the necessary details to structure the pillars of this strategy.
Information on carbon projects in Colombia
The Carbon in Flavor and Aroma Forests (C-BOSAR) project is a grouped ARR carbon sequestration project, which began field activities in April 2022 through the installation of agroforestry systems of coffee, cocoa and honey under shade, thus forming the first 19 hectares that correspond to the first group of project goals. It should be noted that the project is being developed under VCS standards and are currently in the publication phase for public comments within the official system of the standard, which will allow continuing with the validation process and subsequent registration.
The Conservation in Flavor and Aroma Forests (CO-BOSAR+) project is a clustered REDD+ project and is currently in the co-design phase. Agreements of intent have already been signed with two organizations in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, with which the first steps will be taken in the coming months by signing participation agreements. In addition, other potential organizations are being evaluated and some technical requirements are under review.
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