American Carbon Offsets

American Carbon Offset Portfolio

Carbon Footprint Ltd supports a variety of clean / renewable energy and reforestation projects in North America - including USA, Canada, Central & South America .

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Maya Nut Tree Programme

See the latest pictures of the tree planting in action!

Reforesting with Maya Nut trees (Brosimum alicastrum) alleviates poverty, malnutrition and food insecurity in the Americas while providing affordable carbon offsets for individuals, companies and governments

Carbon Footprint’s projects include our American reforestation programmes with The Equilibrium Fund and its partners in Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The programme works directly with rural communities to establish Maya Nut “food forests”. The programmes have been awarded numerous awards, including the most prestigious Saint Andrews Prize for the Environment.

These food forests provide the following direct and tangible benefits for rural people and the environment:

• FOOD SECURITY AND POVERY ALLEVIATION

Each native rainforest Maya Nut tree can provide hundreds of pounds of food that falls to the ground every year, in the form of abundant delicious and nutritious “nuts” which are easy to process and store. The nuts can provide all balanced food needs for entire villages, especially in times of drought when standard agriculture fails.

• AVOIDED RAINFOREST DESTRUCTION

The tree planting programmes work to educate local women on Maya Nut cooking recipes to feed their families. Women now have an added incentive to protect existing rainforest, and more motivation to plant and nurture new Maya Nut trees.

• FOOD and HABITAT for wildlife

Keystone rainforest amimals depend on Maya Nut for food - 85% of neotropical birds and wildlife depend on Maya Nut fruit, nuts and leaves for food

• NUTRITION FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN

The reforestation programmes include a Maya Nut School lunch programme, providing jobs for local women and nutrition and education for local children.

• MEDICINE

For asthma, anemia, high blood pressure, arthritis and osteoporosis.

• FODDER for livestock

Maya Nut leaves are an excellent alternative to grass pasture for tropical cattle ranchers.

• ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

Maya Nut Trees provide soil and water protection, carbon sequestration, flood mitigation, ecosystem resilience to climate change.

• CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION

Each Maya nut tree sequesters/absorbs over 1 tonne of carbon dioxide over 40 years.

Internationally endorsed

The Equilibrium Fund partners with and is endorsed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and also the following institutions:
• The Ford Foundation
• Heifer Project International
• The World Wildlife Fund
• Rainforest Alliance
• The United Nations Small Grants Programme
• Global Environment Facility
• IUCN - International Union for the Conservation of Nature
• Guatemalan Ministries of Education and Agriculture
• National Institute of Forests, Guatemala
• Re-Green Guatemala Program
• Kimberly-Clark, El Salvador
• El Salvadoran Ministry of the Environment
• Enterprise for the Americas Fund
• German Development Agency
• Embassies of Luxemburgh, Norway and Germany
• Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species, Bioversity International

News Update: American project leader is a CNN Hero!

Erika Vohman – project leader of our American Maya Nut Tree offset programme has been recognised as a CNN hero! The project is making a significant impact in improving the lives of women in Central America by teaching them about their native Maya nut trees and the environmental, health and nutritional benefits.

In addition to the environmental benefits, just one tree is capable to produce as much as 400 pounds of food a year, using the Maya nut prevents rain forest clear-cutting to harvest other foods and increases population’s food supplies as well as offsetting carbon emissions.

It is great to see Erika and The Equilibrium Fund team’s hard work recognised, with 60,000 trees planted in Laguna Lachua last year and a further 250,000 new trees growing in the nurseries ready to be planted in Peten, Guatemala. The project has received numerous international accolades and is endorsed by US celebrity and environmentalist Alison Gannett. Carbon Footprint’s client contributions will really help this project go from strength to strength!

Celebrity endorsed

Our Americas portfolio is endorsed by Alison Gannett – the celebrity global warming consultant & champion extreme big mountain freeskier. Alison has been voted one of America’s Green All Stars alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Willie Nelson & Leonardo DiCaprio. Alison also trains Al Gore’s Climate Project Team on her four-step CROP framework for global warming solutions. www.alisongannett.com

“I’ve assisted in Maya Nut cooking classes and tree planting projects in El Salvador and Nicaragua. I was personally amazed with how many food products could be made from the seed of one Maya Nut tree- I loved the raw corn/potatoe-like Maya nut dumplings and tortillas, but was amazed that the roasted product tasted like chocolate and coffee mixed together. We made 17 recipes in a few hours, and the women were ecstatic! I watch women that have never made a dime in their life not only learn to feed their children with the healthy and yummy local Maya nut, but watched them later evolve to create small businesses to market and sell Maya Nut to local cereal companies. They are transformed by this programme, building confidence and education that will change their lives forever.” Alison Gannett