ReverdeC: The Roots of the World's First Fully Digital Carbon Credits in Colombia

ReverdeC participatory ecological restoration program has restored more than 7,000 hectares by planting more than 15 million trees in Colombia. In the Valle del Cauca, a region in the southwest of Colombia, approximately 70% of the trees used for the restoration processes of the ReverdeC program are located. Hills gently roll in swaths of green and streams flow through the undergrowth. Home to 16 different ecosystems teeming with thousands of species and providing intricate ecosystem services, these trees are the work and effort of hundreds of community members over the last 8 years. It is a lesson in perseverance, the importance of ecosystems for quality of life, and the connection between forests and communities.

Funded and founded by Celsia, an energy company of the group Argos, ReverdeC launched in 2016 in response to intense droughts in the department of Valle del Cauca due to the El Niño event in 2015 that left the region reeling. These watersheds service the municipal and rural aqueducts in Valle del Cauca, Antioquia, Risaralda, Atlántico and Tolima departments of Colombia. After the events of 2016, a community led effort emerged to restore watersheds by planting native tree species and revitalizing forest cover. Almost 10 years later, the community has surpassed their goal of planting 10 million trees to having planted more than 15 million! Here is a tally up of their results so far:

With an objective to obtain more resources for the growth of the program, Celsia and their ReverdeC project began working with Open Forest Protocol in 2022 to continue a legacy of going above and beyond to protect the environment of Colombia, and the communities and people on the ground that rely on this forest ecosystem for vital resources. Using OFP, Celsia has launched three pilot plots to begin tracking, monitoring, and reporting the restoration process to be at the forefront of sustainable carbon financing for all stakeholders involved.  

What Does This Mean for the Communities and Forests of ReverdeC?

On January 23, Celsia was the first Open Forest Protocol project to generate the world's only fully digital, immutable, and traceable carbon credits, from the soil up. Unlike other credits that are sourced outside of a state of the art, immutable ledger system, OFP carbon credits are created using groundbreaking blockchain technology from inception to sale.

This means:

● Every carbon credit is entirely visible from the inception of the carbon development project (documented on a novel product known as Atlas), to the upload, verification, issuance, and offset of the credit in question.

● For the community and local stakeholders that operate and depend on the forests managed by ReverdeC, this allows for every aspect of the project to be shown to the world, and for their carbon credits to be incredibly high integrity.

● All credits created are automatically distributed to the project’s wallet after verification and issuance.

Now, there is no question that there are healthy, thriving forests growing in the sloping hills of Valle del Cauca. The hard work of the community stakeholders involved can directly reap the benefits without third party interference and keep earning from their restoration and preservation efforts for years to come.

“We hope to use these carbon credits for growing the project, improve the monitoring and contribute for the community who participated in the process.”- Alex Vargas, Team Member ReverdeC - Celsia

Goals for the community in the future include working with more partners to continue strengthening the program, plant more trees and increase restoration areas to protect biodiversity and water regulation, and even extend action beyond Colombia.

Celsia and the ReverdeC project have proven that community networks and initiatives work when it comes to forest restoration and ecological preservation. We congratulate them on taking the first momentous step forward by creating the world's first fully digital, blockchain based carbon credits and we are honored to be partners to help make it happen!

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Learn more about ReverdeC: https://www.reverdec.org/

See their pilot plots on the OFP Atlas: https://atlas.openforestprotocol.org/1671129683881