COTAP’s Terms of Use
Welcome to Carbon Offsets To Alleviate Poverty (“COTAP”), a California non-profit corporation (together with its officers, directors, agents, employees, partners and their respective affiliates, collectively, “COTAP”). This Terms of Use (“Agreement”) is a contract between you (“you”) and COTAP and governs all transactions between you and COTAP, as well as your use of the COTAP.org website (the “Website”) and all COTAP services. By using the Website, you agree to be bound by this Agreement, whether or not you become a donor, directly or indirectly participate in COTAP’s offsetting program (the “Program”) or otherwise use the Website (in each such capacity, as a “User”). If you wish to participate in the Program or otherwise become a User of the Website, you must read all of these Terms and Conditions in, and linked to, this Agreement (including the Privacy Policy). If you do not agree with all of these terms and conditions, please do not participate in the Program or use this Website.
1) Program Participation. COTAP pools contributions (“Contributions”) from you and other Users and matches those pooled funds with accredited forestry carbon projects in least developed regions which benefit rural community members (“Beneficiaries”) through direct payments and contributions into community trust funds from which the Beneficiaries benefit.
2) No Guarantee. COTAP retains the ultimate authority to use your Contributions at its discretion for purposes consistent with its exempt purposes. COTAP’s forestry carbon partners (“Partners”) and projects (“Projects”), which have unique and compelling ability to reach and economically benefit rural communities in least developed regions, entail a variety risks, including but not limited to force majeure events (including but not limited to floods, wildfires, severe storms, droughts, pest infestations or tree disease, acts of terrorism, declared acts of war, civil unrest, and any other events which are not foreseeable by or under the reasonable control of COTAP ), currency exchange, and counterparty risks. Accordingly, while COTAP aims to deploy your Contributions as directed by you, we are unable to guarantee that will be the case. COTAP will track Projects’ carbon sequestration and socioeconomic performance and report them to you on approximately an annual basis.
In instances where a COTAP Partner or Project fails to generate projected carbon sequestration and/or socioeconomic benefits, COTAP will at its sole discretion pursue a variety of countermeasures and remedies, including but not limited to:
- Withholding collected funds from Partners pending corrective actions.
- Having a Partner replace failed plantings with additional plantings from the same or subsequent planting season.
- Having a Partner replace failed contracted tonnes with those from a similar Project, which may or may not be in the same geographic location.
- Replacing tonnes with those from other Projects within the COTAP portfolio, which may or may not be with the same Partner or in the same geographic location.