Due to the large number of updates, we put a simple summary in the actual email newsletter linking to this post, which contains all the details, photos, and links. Enjoy!
New and Repeat Business Customers
COTAP thanks repeat customers Restorative Formulations and World Wide Web Hosting (aka site5) and welcomes new U.S. customer Monarch Media and new Costa Rican customers Anca Médica, Hotel Giada, and Condominio La Floresta!
If your business is interested in addressing its climate impacts in a very global and meaningful way, get in touch and we’ll set up a time to explore the possibilities!
Transparency Updates
Partner Payments & Credit Retirements. We completed our February/March round of project payments and retirements, which can be seen at COTAP.org/Transparency.
Current Round. Since last time, Cotappers have offset 603 tonnes, we currently owe each project for about 150 tonnes, and we plan to start our next round of payments in mid-to-late Summer.
Annual Reports. The 2014 Uganda and 2013 Mozambique Annual Reports are now approved by the Plan Vivo Foundation and have been posted to our Transparency page. The India project’s 2014 report is under review and the Malawi 2014 report is anticipated to be under review by the end of June.
Dropbox Folder. You can now view and download all projects’ most recent documentation in one place: here. This includes each project’s most recent annual report, Project Design Document (PDD), and Technical Specifications (TS).
New Beneficiary Profile: Sinoliyamu Banda
Click on the picture to view the full profile for Sinoliyamu Banda, a farmer participating in the Clinton Development Initiative’s Trees of Hope project in Malawi.
New & Updated Interactive Data Maps for Uganda & Nicaragua
Ecotrust Uganda recently unveiled an interactive Google map for the Trees for Global Benefits project. To view individual farmer details, click on the menu icon at top left, select a region or “landscape,” and pick a farmer. A bigger version is here, and Taking Root’s updated map for their CommuniTree project in Nicaragua can be seen here
New Project Videos from India’s East Khasi Hills
COTAP partner Community Forestry International has produced several new videos about the Khasi Hills project. The main one, “When the Forest is Home,” is a 24-minute film about India’s first internationally-certified project under the United Nations REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) program. It tells the story of Tambor Lyngdoh, the charismatic project leader who has united ten indigenous Khasi kingdoms into a Federation to protect and restore the remote Khasi Hills forests in the state of Meghalaya.
Partner News & Events
Fall Stakeholder Meeting in Sweden. COTAP will be attending the Plan Vivo Foundation stakeholder event in Sigtuna, Sweden on September 28 & 29. Many project leaders will be coming together in one place for mutual learning about challenges, trends, and best practices around such things as payments for ecosystem services (PES), co-benefits, forest monitoring, and certification of non-carbon ecosystem services.
Plan Vivo Updates. The Plan Vivo Foundation’s April newsletter unveiled their new 38-page brochure about all 12 of their projects, 5 of which are on COTAP. The newsletter also describes PV’s participation in March conferences in Indonesia and Uganda, as well as notes new project applicants from Madagascar, Burkina Faso, and Ethiopia.
Ecotrust Uganda’s March Event and June Newsletter. Ecotrust’s April/May Bulletin provides many updates on their burgeoning array of partnerships, workshops, and other activities. They also recently sent out a summary of their March conference in Kampala, attended by 170 constituents and with a theme of “Improving Livelihoods and Restoring Ecosystems.”
“Adventures in Cotapping,” or Sharing Our Challenges & Lessons
COTAP received positive feedback when we shared our decision to pause allocations the Sofala project in our previous newsletter. In order to grow and succeed, COTAP must constantly experiment with promising models to see what works and what doesn’t. Here are two recent experiments where we’re learning a LOT:
Microsoft/COTAP Employee Offset Matching Program. Last Fall, Microsoft teamed up with COTAP to pilot our innovative program to leverage their donation matching program to double the tonnes offset by employees and reduce their effective rate to $4.95 per tonne. Unfortunately, Microsoft failed to make the program visible to employees, so we’re searching for a new partner for this program.
20th Poverty and Environment Partnership (PEP) Meeting. At the request of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), we created a tailored page for “PEP 20” attendees to easily offset their unavoidable air travel CO2 emissions. The theme of the event was “Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for Inclusive, Climate Resilient, Green Economies.” In terms of CO2 tonnes offset, the results from this particular event have so far been modest. That said, the lessons and visibility COTAP gained from this effort are exciting and they are laying very important groundwork for future event opportunities.
View COTAP Testimonials and Submit Yours
Cotapper Sightings!
Team COTAP was representin’ on the top of Mt. Whitney on June 1st. If you didn’t know, Mt. Whitney is the highest peak in the lower 48 states at 14,505 feet! A Cotapper was also spotted 300 miles north… at the Lost and Found Gravel Grinder in the Sierra foothills on May 30th! Click on the photo for the glorious, full-size version.
Until Next Time…
This is COTAP’s Spring 2015 newsletter. Please take a moment to share it via the links on the left. Our newsletter archive is here. If this was shared with you and you’d like to receive updates from us directly, you can sign up http://eepurl.com/eYsWc. We share updates less than once per month and when there’s big news.
Sincerely,
Tim Whitley
COTAP.org Founder
