Bosques Pico Bonito
Overview
Our flagship project, Bosques Pico Bonito (BPB) is a venture established by Pico Bonito National Park Foundation (FUPNAPIB), Ecologic Development Fund and Earth Carbon Offsets. Pico Bonito National Park is the second largest in Honduras at 265,000 acres. It includes seven distinct ecosystems and 19 major watersheds which supply drinking water to more than 500,000 people. The park is also one of the most important migratory bird and wildlife corridors in Central America, providing critical habitats for 192 species of Neotropical migrant birds, and it is the only known home of the Honduran Emerald Hummingbird, (Amazilia luciae), the most endangered bird in Central America. But the park has suffered serious degradation and deforestation on its boundaries that threaten all these critical functions.
Ecologic has been working in Honduras since 1996. They began working with FUPNAPIB in 1998 and in 2006 incorporated Bosques Pico Bonito to develop business enterprises that would both fund ecosystem restoration work in Pico Bonito and provide a sustainable job base for the more than 80 communities surrounding the national park, where poverty is endemic. Beginning in the Fall of 2008 the first verified carbon offsets from this project will be available to the American market, and Earth Carbon OffsetsTMis the exclusive source for these best of class carbon credits. Carbon offsets from BPB were derived from both avoided deforestation as well as reforestation efforts to create the world's premier forest-based Ecosystem Restoration Carbon offsets.
Mission and Goals
The mission of Bosques Pico Bonito is threefold: to restore tropical forest land to its pre-eminent position as part of the global carbon balance system, bring back its plant and animal biodiversity, and develop a sustainable economic model for local communities that will provide the intergenerational stability necessary to preserve those natural systems in perpetuity.
Specific goals of the BPB project include:
- Training local farmers in agro-forestry
- Restoring a minimum of 6000 acres of deforested and degraded land
- Planting 1 million trees of 16 native species
- Sequestering over 1.4 million tons of carbon dioxide over 30 years
- Generating over $400 million dollars in revenues through timber and carbon credits
- Providing sustainable employment for 300 local residents
Achievement of this group of mutually supportive goals will provide the foundation on which further improvements can be made in valuable quality of life measures that have been allowed to deteriorate over the past few generations, especially water quality, access to basic health care and educational opportunities for local youth.
Awards and Accolades
Already, the nearly ten years of planning put into the BPB project has attracted critical praise. The project's methodology was only the fourth in the world to receive an "A" from the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism Agency and the first involving tropical reforestation. And the World Bank's BioCarbon Fund has committed to the purchase of carbon offsets from Bosques Pico Boonito for the European certified carbon market, a sure sign of the support generated among top international carbon experts.
And in May 2008, BPB was chosen from among 853 entries received from 109 countries to receive the prestigious 2007 Energy Globe National Energy Award for Honduras.
Partners
In addition to project developers Ecologic Development Fund and FUPNAPIB, critical input to the project has come from Brinkman & Associates Reforestation, a global leader in sustainable forestry management with extensive experience in managing tropical forests.
Become a Partner
The primary way for individuals to support the Bosques Pico Bonito project is through the purchase of Earth Carbon Offsets to balance their carbon footprint.
It is also possible to invest directly in the BPB project. If you are interested in learning more about direct investment in one of the most sustainable tropical forestry projects in the world, please email invest@bosquespicobonito.com if a direct investment in Bosques Pico Bonito fits your investment strategy.