Climate Stewards: new countries, new projects…

Climate Stewards enables you to offset your unavoidable carbon emissions by supporting community mitigation projects. This year sees the start of exciting new partnerships in Kenya and Mexico alongside continuing support for A Rocha Ghana’s tree planting.

In Kenya we’re supporting our partner Paradigm to provide fuel-efficient cookstoves, water filters and solar lights at subsidized prices. The stoves cut the use of wood by 40-50%, while burning hotter and producing much less smoke; water filters cut out the need to boil water; and solar lamps replace ineffective, smoky paraffin lamps with brighter light. All in all, it’s a win/win/win – fewer trees are cut down, women and children spend less time collecting wood, money spent on fuel is saved, respiratory and eye diseases are cut, and children have better light to read and work by.

In Mexico, our partner Scolel’te (which means ‘the tree that grows’) works with smallholder farmers in Chiapas, southern Mexico, to create, restore and preserve indigenous forests and carry out agroforestry. The project works with over 1,000 smallholders and brings social and environmental benefits such as payments from the sale of carbon credits, protection of watersheds and the preservation of local forests that would otherwise have been destroyed.

Through our new partners, we are able to offer certified VERs (Voluntary Emissions Reduction Certificates) which guarantee the amount of carbon offset. These can be used as part of an organization’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint. Maybe your employer, school or church would be interested? If so, we’d love an introduction. Please contact us.