Carbon Credits

Protecting the Amazon Basin

Peru

Yacumama Forest Conservation Project

The Yacumama Forest Conservation Project safeguards 2,863 hectares (roughly 7,075 acres) of tropical rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon Basin, land that would otherwise be cleared for agriculture and timber. Carbon financing funds the work, allowing the project team to keep the forest standing through an on-the-ground presence at the main lodge and regular patrols against illegal logging. Across its 30-year span (2012–2041), the project aims to avoid 681,515 tCO₂e in emissions, averaging 22,717 tCO₂e per year.

The benefits of this work extend well beyond the carbon ledger. By preventing deforestation, the project avoids more than 680,000 tonnes of CO₂e and generates high-integrity nature-based avoidance credits. Those same protected acres deliver real community value: Yacumama management supports the local health clinic serving Puerto Miguel, and the lodge acts as a logistical hub for Amazon Promise, a nonprofit that brings medical and dental care to remote populations across the Upper Amazon Basin. The conservation effort also keeps ecosystems healthy, maintaining forest cover along the Rio Yarapa to protect water quality and the habitats that sustain the local fishery, and shelters Amazonian wildlife such as jaguars, tapirs, sloths, harpy eagles, and the pink river dolphin. Underpinning it all is a transformed mission – Yacumama, once an eco-tourist lodge supplemented by logging and agriculture, has redirected its purpose toward ecological research, education, and conservation.