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Exciting news! We’ve recently teamed up with <a href="https://www.globalforestgeneration.org/">Global Forest Generation</a> (GFG) to support new projects in four countries in South America. From June 2022 onwards, some of the trees funded for planting by our community will be planted by GFG and their local partners across Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru.
We’re really proud to have begun this exciting new collaboration with GFG to support these impactful projects. Read on to find out more about our new reforestation partner, and the projects we’re supporting through their forest restoration initiative, Acción Andina.

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Global Forest Generation (GFG) was founded in 2018 by seasoned conservationists and is a non-profit organisation that’s dedicated to protecting and restoring forest ecosystems across South America. It achieves this aim by building large-scale, multi-country forest ecosystem initiatives with grassroots leaders and communities, and equips them with the resources, capacities and partnerships needed to sustain and scale their impact over time. 
GFG regards the lack of ecosystem restoration capacity and leadership on the ground as the most significant obstacle to achieving global climate, conservation and sustainable development targets through nature-based solutions (see their 2022 report <a href="https://assets.speakcdn.com/assets/2645/2022-05-_gfg_final_report_to_all_supporters.pdf">here</a>). As a result, GFG prioritises the importance of long-term, high-quality projects through holistic initiatives such as Acción Andina.

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Acción Andina, is a GFG-led initiative involving multi-stakeholder engagement to restore critically important native ecosystems in South America. To date, 3.7 million native trees have been planted across five countries (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile) through this initiative. Dozens of local communities have been involved, helping to ensure the restoration and protection of native ecosystems for generations to come.
Acción Andina delivers on a range of national and international climate, conservation, restoration and sustainable development priorities. Through this initiative, GFG  engages with and supports developing partnerships with local, provincial and national government institutions, universities, private sector organisations, regional and international donors, and strategic partners to scale impact and results.
The golden thread connecting all Acción Andina projects is the focus on a 20-year old community-led reforestation model developed by Peru-based conservation organisation <a href="https://www.ecoanperu.org/">ECOAN</a>, and a dedication to restoring the Polylepis ecosystem, which grows along the spine of South America’s 3,000 mile Andean mountain range. Over the next 25 years, Acción Andina aims to restore one million hectares (approx. 2.5 million acres) of the high-Andean forest ecosystem characterised by Polylepis forests.

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Polylepis is a genus of hardy, evergreen shrubs and trees, which are found in the higher elevations of the Andean mountains &#8211; it’s the highest altitude tree in the world! Despite having once covered large parts of the Andes mountain range, its ground cover is now severely fragmented and in dire need of both protection and restoration. 
Polylepis forests are vital for protecting the water security of millions of people. The trees and their root systems slow the movement of glacial meltwater, ensuring its slow release into rivers and streams throughout the year. Their branches also effectively comb and harvest mists and precipitation from the clouds. As a result, permanent streams are created. This is vital for agriculture in mountainous areas, but also for lowland towns and villages where glacial meltwater is a key source of water. The trees also prevent soil erosion and flooding, protecting homes and livelihoods. 
The forests also help to buffer the local climate from the impacts of climate change, through evapotranspiration, keeping the local climate cooler and wetter than it would be without the trees, meaning biodiversity that relies on this climate can still survive there. Not only that, but the trees and the healthy soils associated with the trees are an important carbon store, playing a crucial role in the global fight against climate change.
Unfortunately, Polylepis forests in the Andes have been threatened for some time now by deforestation. Indigenous and local communities who live close to the remaining forests are working with local conservation organisations to protect the remaining native forests and restore areas that have been deforested, planting a range of native species, including Polylepis.

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The reforestation projects we will be supporting through GFG are part of a project currently spanning 5 countries in South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru) called Acción Andina, which is restoring the high-Andean forest ecosystem of Polylepis forests. Ecologi will be funding the planting of 450,000 trees in four South American countries in the Andes mountains over the next 2 years. These trees will be planted across 16 different project sites, three in <a href="https://x.ecologi.com/projects/restoring-andean-forests-argentina">Argentina</a>, two in <a href="https://x.ecologi.com/projects/restoring-andean-forests-in-bolivia">Bolivia</a>, five in <a href="https://x.ecologi.com/projects/restoring-andean-forests-in-ecuador">Ecuador</a>, and six in <a href="https://x.ecologi.com/projects/restoring-andean-forests-in-peru">Peru</a>.
We’ll be receiving quarterly reports on the progress of our projects with GFG, including regular photo updates to show our community the progress of the trees they’ve funded &#8211; watch this space!
<iframe title="Festival of Trees" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v_Q8g0ezOkc?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
To read more on what Global Forest Generation is all about, see <a href="https://www.globalforestgeneration.org/">here</a>.
<a href="https://x.ecologi.com/plan">Sign up</a> to Ecologi today to start taking real climate action 🌿

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UK Voluntary Carbon Market Guide: Best Practices for Climate Action

The voluntary carbon market plays an important role in corporate climate strategies – but its effectiveness relies on buyers doing due diligence and rigorous quality assessment on each project, as well as placing the purchase of credits in the right place in the climate journey.
To ensure meaningful climate impact, businesses must develop a comprehensive carbon strategy and find ways to fund only high-quality credits in the voluntary carbon market – and this guide shows you how to do so with Ecologi.

<h2>Table of contents</h2>
<ul>
<li>When to buy carbon credits</li>
<li>Our new carbon projects assessment framework</li>
<li>Ecologi&#8217;s core due diligence principles</li>
<li>How Ecologi scores and ranks carbon credit projects</li>
<li>Questions to ask your carbon credit supplier</li>
<li>Take action in the voluntary carbon market</li>
</ul>

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<h2>When should businesses buy carbon credits in the voluntary market?</h2>
Businesses must not use credits in place of making direct, measurable reductions in their emissions. Instead, follow these steps to ensure you buy your carbon credits on the right step of your corporate climate action journey, and in the right way:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Measure your emissions first – to allow you to understand where your business’s emissions are coming from. 
</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Set science-based targets and work towards them – set ambitious targets aligned with the SBTi and compatible with the global 1.5ºC warming target.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM) – design your BVCM portfolio to work alongside your decarbonisation plan and address your unabated emissions in each reporting year. Align it with SBTi guidance and the Oxford Principles. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Buy high-quality carbon credits – use this guide to ensure the carbon credits you buy meet rigorous quality standards. Remember, under the SBTi framework you’ll also need permanent carbon removal credits for neutralising your residual emissions when you reach your net-zero date.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Disclose and report transparently – publicly disclose information about your carbon credit purchases, and clearly communicate the limited role of carbon credits in your broader sustainability strategy.</li>
</ol>

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<h2>Ecologi&#8217;s carbon project assessment framework</h2>
In April 2025, we published a report summarising how we assess carbon credit projects against our rigorous proprietary rubric. A snapshot of what goes into our carbon credit project assessment is below, or you <a href="https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20250428124112/Ecologi_Whitepaper_A4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">download the full whitepaper here</a>.

<h2>Carbon project due diligence: Ecologi’s core principles</h2>
At Ecologi, we maintain general due diligence principles which we apply universally across the voluntary carbon market, to support our efforts to supply only high-quality carbon credits.
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">ICROA-endorsed standards only – we supply credits exclusively from carbon standards which are ICROA-endorsed.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Responsive to ICVCM decisions – we support the ICVCM’s two-tick approach to providing CCP-Approval to project methodologies, and we go further still, to assess individual projects on their merits and limitations as well.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Keep the carbon credit life cycle as short as possible – 75% of our credits in 2024 came directly from project developers and their nominated dispensaries (as opposed to intermediaries on the secondary market), maximising the proportion of purchase price which goes to the developer.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Locally-appropriate projects only – we take care to ensure that supported projects are being applied in appropriate geographies, where they can have the greatest impact.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Deep project-level scrutiny – our extensive assessment criteria are specific to each type of project, and we assess every project against these criteria, ensuring the project’s specifics have been taken into account.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Methodological consensus – we synthesise data we receive from our partners Sylvera, BeZero Carbon, Calyx Global and Renoster) with our own in-house analysis to uncover where there is consensus about project quality, and improve confidence.</li>
</ul>

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<h2>How to evaluate carbon credits: Ecologi&#8217;s scoring methodology</h2>
We designed a three-layer assessment process which takes into account the merits and limitations of the carbon standard used, the carbon credit methodology used, and of the individual project design.
The tables below summarise some of the data inputs we use at each stage.

<h3>Assessment level: Carbon Standard</h3>
Examples: Gold Standard, Verra, Puro Earth, Isometric, Plan Vivo.

<h3>Assessment level: Methodology (or ‘Protocol’)</h3>
Examples: GS TPDDTEC, VM0048, ACM0002.

<h3>Assessment level: Project</h3>
Examples: GS 10790, VCS 1571.

Criteria in the assessment are categorised as either quality criteria or risk criteria, and are segmented by our three pillars of impact: Climate, Nature and People. Based on how it meets each criterion, the project gains points for quality criteria, and loses points for excess risk – ultimately giving a risk-adjusted value out of 100 for each of these pillars.
Having gathered our risk-adjusted pillar scores, we use our own unique scoring formula which weights the risk-adjusted Climate score of the project equally with the combined risk-adjusted Nature and People scores. The formula then produces an ‘overall’ score (also out of 100) for the project. In order to be supplied by Ecologi, projects must meet a minimum overall score of 80, and must achieve no lower than 65 in any given risk-adjusted pillar score.

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<h2>Key questions to ask carbon credit suppliers</h2>
Selecting the right carbon credit provider is important to help guide you to make informed choices as part of your corporate sustainability strategy. Before purchasing carbon credits, businesses should ask:
<h3>Project quality </h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you assess/validate/underwrite project quality? If so, how?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do your projects get good ratings from the ratings agencies? If so, what ratings are they?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you source credits directly from project developers, or from the secondary market?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you monitor projects over time to ensure continued success, and how do you remedy it, if a project&#8217;s quality drops?</li>
</ul>
<h3>Due diligence</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you ensure you are supporting the right projects in the right locations?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you account for project permanence and mitigate risks?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What makes your projects additional?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you assess the project&#8217;s impacts on climate, nature and people?</li>
</ul>
<h3>Positioning</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you contribute to the development of a high integrity voluntary carbon market?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you align your portfolios with the Oxford Principles? If so, how?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you reflect ICVCM guidance on carbon credit methodologies and technologies?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you build multi-year portfolios that align to mid- &amp; long-term SBTs?</li>
</ul>
As the voluntary carbon market evolves, corporate buyers have the power and the responsibility to demand high-impact credits to drive real climate progress. This means buyers have a responsibility to do due diligence before placing an order for carbon credits.

<h2>Take action in the voluntary carbon market</h2>
As a business committed to corporate climate action, understanding the voluntary carbon market is essential for making informed decisions about carbon credits. Our comprehensive whitepaper provides deeper insights into creating an effective sustainability strategy.
<a href="https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20250428124112/Ecologi_Whitepaper_A4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Download our full whitepaper</a> to learn how your business can navigate the voluntary carbon market with confidence.

<h2>Connect with one of our climate experts</h2>
Please complete our form to arrange a 30-minute discovery call to discuss your goals and get a tailored solution for your business.

We’re now supporting reforestation projects in South America with Global Forest Generation

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