Due to a 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 Beneficiary Profiles from Uganda and Malawi
Meet (left to right) Musingo Mikhaya, Dorothy and Vekelani Nthala, Daniel Mukhwana, and Petrol Khinda. Together they’re projected to earn $1,567 for planting 1,363 trees which will sequester over 431 tonnes of CO2. Check out their profiles to see how their supplemental carbon offset earnings are improving their lives.
Transparency Updates
Partner Payments & Credit Retirements. In early November we completed project payments to our four projects for tonnes pooled from our individual and business supporters all over the world. We’re currently in the process of retiring these credits, the progress of which can be tracked at COTAP.org/Transparency.
Annual Reports. Since our last project update, the 2014 Malawi and India Annual Reports were approved and posted to our Transparency page, and can be found with all projects’ most recent Annual Reports, Project Design Documents (PDD) and Technical Specifications (TS) in COTAP’s Dropbox folder.
Phase-out of the Sofala Mozambique Project
In February, COTAP paused allocations to Sofala, meaning no money coming in would go towards buying carbon credits from the project until it re-attained good standing. That did not happen. In October, project operator Associação Envirotrade Carbon Livelihoods announced its decision to formally wind down the project.
The project is will thus to be phased out of COTAP and replaced in the coming months. A final third-party verification is underway. When the report is released we’ll share it, along with our plan for addressing any projected CO2 reduction shortfall.
Plan Vivo Foundation Updates
(Full gallery by ZeroMission is here.) From September 28-30, the Plan Vivo Foundation and its longtime partner ZeroMission hosted the biannual Plan Vivo stakeholder event in Sigtuna, Sweden. COTAP met with Plan Vivo staff as well as Kahlil Baker of Taking Root (Nicaragua), Pauline Nantongo Kalunda and Sarah Nachuha of Ecotrust (Uganda), and Ariana Constant of the Clinton Development Initiative (Malawi). Plan Vivo unveiled its brief outlining its very strong alignment with 7 of the 17 recently announced United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals.
Last but not least, Plan Vivo also recently released its annual report and announced that, for the first time, they’re offsetting their own organization carbon emissions… through COTAP!
