Back to projects

CO

Colombia

104,530 ha

Bajo Calima y Bahía Málaga

Avoided Unplanned Deforestation

Protect a unique ecosystem owned by two Afro-Colombian communities

Overview

Bajo Calima y Bahía Málaga

CO

Colombia

104,530 ha

Avoided Unplanned Deforestation

Bajo Calima y Bahía Málaga (BCBM) is an avoided deforestation project started in 2013 on the Pacific coast of Colombia that protects and restores an area of land as big as the city of Austin. The Colombian government granted the land to two Afro-descendant communities, and the project is now fully owned and operated by those communities. This project is next to a major metropolitan area, making its protection all the more critical. The project exists in one of the cloudiest and rainiest portions of the world, receiving over seven meters of rain per year, which also makes it a very unique ecosystem with rich flora and fauna.

Connect with our team to learn more about this project and how Pachama can support your nature strategy.

Registry

Verra Logo

Registry ID: 1395

Certifications

Certification - Climate Community and Biodiversity Standards Logo

Methodology

VM0006

Pachama's project evaluation criteriaPachama rigorously evaluates every project listed on our marketplace to ensure that we're surfacing only the highest quality projects. Our Evaluation Criteria includes a series of checks that every project must pass as well as a number of informative insights on project quality. You can see a preview of these checks below.

01

Additional

Does the project have a net additional climate benefit?

  • Net additional climate benefit

    Emissions reductions are calculated based on the difference between baseline, project, and leakage emissions. Pachama analyzes emissions claims to confirm that the project has a net additional climate benefit, and each credit represents at least one metric ton of carbon.

02

Conservative

Is the climate benefit based on sound and conservative claims?

  • Baseline claims

    Pachama analyzes baseline emissions accounting to confirm that the reported baseline emissions are less than what Pachama observes with remote sensing.

  • Project claims

    Pachama assesses the project boundary, project emissions accounting, carbon inventory, and financial and legal additionality.

  • Leakage claims

    Pachama summarizes the project's reported leakage emissions accounting.

03

Durable

Is the climate benefit long-lasting?

  • Ongoing monitoring

    Pachama quantifies emissions since the last verification to ensure the project continues to deliver a climate benefit.

  • Project risks

    Pachama characterizes fire and other natural risks and summarizes buffer pool contributions.

04

Beyond Carbon

Does the project deliver benefits beyond carbon?

  • Social impacts

    If a project occurs on community-owned land, Pachama confirms the community is fully informed of the project activity and impact, consent is given without coercion, and a grievance and redress mechanism is in place.

  • Ecological impacts

    For ARR projects, Pachama analyzes native species planting, species diversity, regional suitability, and reforestation practices.

  • Certifications

    Pachama provides a summary of the project's awarded certifications.

1/4

Impacts beyond carbon

Local landowners drive a community-oriented focus

Since the project’s inception, local communities have been active participants. The early involvement of local communities has created awareness among community members and readiness for project implementation. The local landowners formed Governing Councils to help oversee the execution of the project and the funds that come from these carbon credits (with support from NGO Fondo Accion). A considerable amount of project programming is spent on community engagement and support, including improving health outcomes, infrastructure building, and working with local agroforestry to improve yields without deforesting additional land.

13

Climate action

The project aims to alleviate pressures on the forests, like illegal logging, through the support of governance capacity (including individual property titling, land-use planning, and conservation zone demarcation) along with the generation of alternate income sources. These project activities contribute to social and economic development in one of the poorest areas of Colombia.

Learn more

15

Life on land

While a wealth of knowledge exists with respect to its unique species diversity, an in-depth understanding of both biodiversity at a local scale and ecosystem dynamics at a landscape scale is still limited. An important objective of the project is to improve the mapping of local diversity in the region, and it is very likely that additional species and ecosystem characteristics will become better known as a result. In the meantime, a substantial number of species known to occur in the project zone are documented in territorial and forest management plans.

Learn more

biodiversity
This region is renowned for its richness in biodiversity

Thanks to enormous annual rainfall and topographic diversity, the project is incredibly biodiverse with 831 bird species, 195 amphibians, 167 mammals, 210 reptiles, and 5,124 plant species. The project estimates that there are a further 18 mammal, 9 amphibian, and 5 reptile species threatened or endangered within the project. The project is continuing to work to increase the level of knowledge about species and ecosystem diversity.

biodiversity image
Public registry documentsApplicable calculation methods are referenced in the reports below. Note that registries do not publicly provide all pertinent data required to reproduce emissions calculations. However, Independent Validation and Verification Bodies have access to the data needed to reproduce and verify emissions calculations.

  • Project Description

    pdf

  • CCB Project Verification

    pdf

  • Verification Report

    pdf

Explore Other Projects