Located in Mexico’s Hidalgo State, the Llanos de Apan project aims to retain more water in the region by restoring a critical aquifer. Toroto, the local project development partner, is tackling restoration holistically with reforestation as the catalyst to reverse soil erosion, rehabilitate the aquifer and increase environmental awareness in local communities.
hectares under restoration
ejidos enrolled
women participation rate
tons of CO2 removed over the projects lifetime
All 135 ha of active reforestation were fully planted by the end of October 2022. In June 2023, the area was surveyed to assess plant survival and any dead individuals were replaced with new seedlings. A second survival survey will be conducted in June 2024.
Technology driven implementer, Toroto, has partnered with ejidos, local community landowners, to actively restore 135 hectares of land by planting maguey plants, nopal, juniper and oak trees. Simultaneously they are passively restoring an additional 3,000 hectares through the Pastor Program – focused on providing alternate feed sources to livestock – to nurture the local aquifer and generate sustainable livelihoods for local communities for decades to come.
Not only does Llanos de Apan have powerful climate benefits, it also has an outsized impact on the local communities, biodiversity and water sources. In areas of active restoration, dams and stone barriers are being built to enrich the soil, reverse erosion and rehabilitate nearby water sources. To drive lasting benefit, the project focuses on engaging and educating the local community with free technical environmental training to include the ejidatarios in the restoration projects and long-term activities in these regions.
Fencing, fire breaks and hydroponic green forage production have been implemented and dead seedlings have been replanted.
The environmental management squad will establish 9 km of firebreaks and irrigate, building three cisterns to provide water.
Using technology every step of the way, Pachama helps leading companies invest directly in high-quality reforestation projects with unprecedented transparency and accuracy. Pachama uses Light Detection and Ranging technology (LiDAR) to characterize the structure of the trees before planting, serving as a baseline for future carbon measurement. Pictured below is the LiDAR baseline gathered from the Fazenda Santa Rosa farm. Over the next few decades, remote sensing will be continuously deployed to measure forest growth and estimate the carbon sequestered.
