Mexico Forest Protocol Development

Version 1.4

The Mexico Forest Protocol Version 1.4 revision involved minor editorial changes and clarifications as well as updated verification and quantification guidance to better facilitate project development and verification. Notable changes from Version 1.3 are outlined in the document below:

Version 1.3

Version 1.2

Version 1.1

Version 1.0

The Climate Action Reserve developed the Mexico Forest Protocol for over three years with a diverse set of stakeholders, including government agencies, nonprofit organizations, private sector, and landowners, both in the United States and in Mexico. See below for detailed information on protocol development, including public comment submissions, public workshops, workgroup meetings, a list of workgroup participants, and other resources.

Revised Version 1.0 Public Comments

The protocol underwent a second public comment period in August 2013 to solicit feedback on the revised draft of the protocol; see below for the staff response to the one comment received. The second comment period did not result in any changes to the protocol.

BioDean

Public Workshop

The Reserve hosted a public webinar on Wednesday, September 4, 2013 to present details on the revised draft of the protocol and provide a venue for public comments. Workshop materials are available below.

Reserve Presentation
Meeting Video

Version 1.0 Public Comments

The protocol underwent an initial public comment period in January 2011 and the Reserve responded to comments (see below) and made substantial modifications to the protocol based on stakeholder feedback. Some of the important changes from the first draft include:

  • Guidance for crediting avoided emissions has been removed from the current draft. This is consistent with the evolution of thinking in Mexico associated with REDD+ activities.
  • Communal lands and private ownerships are eligible to develop projects.
  • The approach to baseline enables varied sequestration activities to be credited under one project, including improved forest management, reforestation, and agroforestry.
  • Environmental and social safeguards have been added directly into the protocol. Rather than relying on third-party criteria to define safeguards, the Reserve will require, monitor, and verify a set of safeguards that have been vetted by stakeholders.
  • The approach to permanence has been modified to account for the temporal value of the project activity.
Center for Biological Diversity New Forests Inc.
Centro de Investigaciones en Geografía Ambiental, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (CIGA-UNAM) Rainforest Alliance
Comisión Nacional Forestal (CONAFOR) Scientific Certification Systems
David Patrick Ross Stanford Environmental Law Clinic
EcoLogic Development Fund Terra Global Capital
Elsa Esquivel The Carbon Basis Company Ltd
Natura Proyectos Ambientales

Workgroup

The Reserve assembled a workgroup to assist with the development of the adaptation of the Reforestation, Avoided Deforestation, and Sustainable Forest Management project types. The workgroup included:

Alianza para la Conservación Sierra Gorda M-REDD
Ambio OVVALO
Baker & McKenzie Pronatura Mexico
Border Environment Cooperation Commission (BECC/COCEF) Pronatura Sur
Centro Mexicano de Derecho Ambiental Rainforest Alliance
CIGA/UNAM Reforestamos Mexico
CONAFOR Servicios Ambientales de Oaxaca
Consejo Civil Mexicano para la Silvicultura Sostenible South Pole Carbon Asset Management
EcoLogic Development Fund Terra Global Capital
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) The Nature Conservancy
Gold Standard Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
GHG Offset Services Verified Carbon Standard (VCS)
Governors’ Climate and Forests Taskforce (GCF) World Wildlife Fund

Subcommittee Resources

Environmental and Social Safeguards (click to expand)
The Mexico Forest Protocol Workgroup is seeking to address environmental and social safeguards through an existing standard. The current thinking in the workgroup is that a project would need to be certified through a third-party standard in order to participate in a Climate Action Reserve forest carbon project. In order to evaluate the existing standards, the principles addressed in each standard were documented and assessed as to whether objective criteria and indicators are provided in the standard to ensure that verification of the principle would be consistently applied. The assessment of the existing standards will also consider the expected explicit requirements of the compliance market in California related to environmental and social integrity. The standards reviewed include:

Climate, Community, and Biodiversity (Project and Jurisdiction)
– Plan Vivo

– The Gold Standard

– Forest Stewardship Council

– REDD+ Amazon Standards (Brazil)

The discussion is ongoing as the workgroup considers which principles are most important to align with Mexico’s REDD+ Vision and with California’s cap and trade regulation.

Workgroup Meeting Documents/Resources

To ensure that the protocol development process is transparent and open, the Reserve makes available to the general public documentation from the workgroup portion of protocol development as it occurs. Click here to view meeting notes and other resources from all past workgroup meetings. For added transparency, interested individuals may also participate in workgroup calls/webinars as an “observer.” Please note that observers will be in listen only mode during calls/webinars.

Other Resources

If you are interested in reviewing the existing US Forest Project Protocol or the US Project Implementation Agreement (PIA) both documents are available in Spanish and English.

Pilot Project – San Juan Lachao

A pilot project using the Mexico Forest Protocol is currently underway in San Juan Lachao, Oaxaca, Mexico. The Reserve will post information and resources below as the project develops.

Pilot Project Fact Sheet [English]
Protocol Onsite Training Workshop [Español] (November 2013)

Please contact Policy Team with questions or comments.