Rio Tinto has committed $16 million to the Makira Natural Park
REDD+1 Project in northern Madagascar, through a new partnership
with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Everland. This
commitment complements Rio Tinto’s investment in nature-based
solutions in the south-east of the country.
The Makira Natural Park REDD+ Project encompasses 372,000
hectares of dense primary forest. One of the largest remaining
rainforests in the country, harbouring 17 species of lemur and more
than 50% of Madagascar’s botanical diversity, Makira is critical to
the protection of species found nowhere else in the world. Home to
approximately 90,000 people who live in 120 villages in the project
area, the project works to build the capacity of communities to
practice more sustainable agriculture and avoid deforesting new
areas.
Rio Tinto’s commitment will allow the project to scale up and
improve protected area management and bring funds that will
directly benefit the rural communities living in and around the
Park. These funds will allow the project to reassess the
deforestation baseline according to the latest Verified Carbon
Standard (VCS) and Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB)
Standards before credit issuance. Funding will also support
monitoring and reporting on the impact of ongoing interventions to
reduce deforestation, protect threatened biodiversity, and bring
durable improvements to local communities, including increasing
their involvement and agency in forest and wildlife protection
activities. Rio Tinto’s investment also includes a committed
offtake of carbon credits from the project.
While Rio Tinto’s priority is reducing operational emissions,
this commitment is part of the company’s work to invest in and
develop high-integrity nature-based solutions. These do not compete
for capital with, or replace, decarbonisation projects, rather they
are standalone carbon and nature investments that can bring
positive outcomes in the regions where Rio Tinto operates.
Max Andonirina Fontaine, Minister of Environment and Sustainable
Development, Government of the Republic of Madagascar said: “This
commitment by Rio Tinto to the Makira Natural Park REDD+ Project
underlines the critical importance of project-level REDD+ efforts
within our national program as an effective tool to halt
deforestation, protect critical ecosystems and biodiversity, and
fund urgently needed development priorities for local communities.
This commitment by Rio Tinto, in partnership with WCS, is an
important milestone in achieving Madagascar’s national and
international goals on climate change and sustainable
development.”
Theresia Ott, Chief Advisor, Nature Solutions, Rio Tinto said,
“Supporting the development of REDD+, restoration and sustainable
landscape management programs in the regions where we work is a
critical component of our Nature Solutions program. The Makira
Natural Park project has played a key role in demonstrating the
success of REDD+ in conserving high biodiversity landscapes whilst
bringing positive outcomes for people. We believe these programs
are much-needed tools to urgently finance large-scale, long-term
activities and therefore to secure sustained protection, while
improving climate resilience and restoring the ecosystem services
on which we all rely.”
Todd Stevens, Executive Director, Wildlife Conservation Society
said: “WCS welcomes this well-timed commitment by Rio Tinto, which
will provide a critical surge in support of recharging forest and
biodiversity conservation, as well as community livelihoods and
economic development activities in Makira. We need more
public-private partnerships like this to help countries like
Madagascar continue to access carbon finance to meet their climate
and sustainable development goals, while safeguarding forests and
wildlife for generations. WCS salutes the Government of the
Republic of Madagascar for their leadership in supporting this
process.”
Joshua Tosteson, Chief Executive Officer, Everland said, “This
commitment by Rio Tinto comes at a critical moment for the
communities and governments of forest nations. At a time when the
risks of inaction have become untenable for the world, the
reputational risks of voluntary corporate action have made it
untenable for many companies to act – when action is most needed to
turn the tide on forest loss. We applaud Rio Tinto, the Madagascar
Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and the
Wildlife Conservation Society for their bold commitment to
protecting and enhancing some of the most important and endangered
ecosystems in the world, while directly empowering the local
communities whose fate is intertwined with that of the forest.”
Notes to editors
In 2003, the Madagascar Ministry of Environment and Sustainable
Development launched a program, supported by WCS, to create the
Makira Forest Protected Area and to finance it in part through
carbon markets.
After a 12-year development effort, in 2013 the Makira Natural
Park REDD+ Project became the first government-owned REDD+ project
in Africa to sell carbon credits on the voluntary carbon market,
after achieving verification under the Verified Carbon Standard
(VCS) and Climate, and Community and Biodiversity (CCB)
Standards.
The project suspended its participation under the VCS from
2020-2024, during which time Madagascar participated in a
jurisdictional emissions reduction program under the Forest Carbon
Partnership Facility of the World Bank. Activities in Makira
continued to reduce deforestation under that jurisdictional
program. Between 2005 and 2013, the project resulted in 6,000
hectares and 31,000 hectares of avoided deforestation within the
project area and leakage belt respectively, and 400 hectares of
degraded forest land restored.
Rio Tinto’s commitment provides sustainable finance to the
project, so that it can continue to deliver positive outcomes for
climate, nature and the local communities in and around the Makira
Natural Park REDD+ Project. This investment is part of Rio Tinto’s
broader support for the protection, restoration and sustainable
management of Madagascar’s biodiverse forests, through projects
that can generate high-integrity carbon credits.
The Makira Forest Protected Area REDD+ Project’s impact will be
assessed for its value to people, climate and nature – using the
most recent and robust methodologies – and the resulting monitoring
reports and results of third-party audits will be publicly
available.
About Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
WCS combines the power of its zoos and an aquarium in New York
City and a Global Conservation Program in more than 50 countries to
achieve its mission to save wildlife and wild places. WCS runs the
world’s largest conservation field program, protecting more than 50
percent of Earth’s known biodiversity; in partnership with
governments, Indigenous People, Local Communities, and the private
sector. It’s four zoos and aquarium (the Bronx Zoo, Central Park
Zoo, Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, and the New York Aquarium)
welcome more than 3.5 million visitors each year, inspiring
generations to care for nature.
About Everland
Everland is a specialised conservation marketing organisation in
the climate change mitigation business that exclusively represents
the Voluntary Carbon Market's largest portfolio of high-impact,
community-centered, forest conservation (REDD+) projects. Through
these projects, Everland brings together communities and
corporations in common cause to protect some of the world’s most
important and vulnerable forests. www.everland.earth
1 United Nations Climate Change: ‘REDD’ stands for ‘Reducing
emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing
countries’. The ‘+’ stands for additional forest-related activities
that protect the climate, namely sustainable management of forests
and the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241114001626/en/
Please direct all enquiries to media.enquiries@riotinto.com
Rio Tinto David Outhwaite M: +44 7787
597493 Media.enquiries@riotinto.com
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Mary Dixon
M +1 347 840 1242 mdixon@wcs.org
Everland Will Richard Media@everland.earth
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