On March 27, a public stakeholder consultation and participatory workshop was held in the context of the certification under Verra’s VCS and CCB standards of the Socio-environmental Complex project, which is composed by two projects in the Rolón Cué and Villa Zenaida fields, at Gobernador Virasoro, province of Corrientes. The first project is of the afforestation, reforestation and revegetation (ARR) type, which consists of planting approximately 3,700 ha with a combination of native and exotic species and takes place in both fields. On the other hand, the improved forest management (IFM) project only occurs in Villa Zenaida and consists of extending the cutting shift of adult pine and eucalyptus plantations to favor carbon storage.
The event took place in Gobernador Virasoro, and was developed together with the Aike NBS team and Fundación Aike Biodiversidad. The consultation was attended by a total of 22 people and was an opportunity to strengthen the connection between the entities involved, the local communities and the international standards that govern this type of initiative.
The presentation covered everything from forestry project design and socio-environmental management to the potential impacts, costs and benefits of the projects and the mitigation of possible negative impacts. A participatory workshop was also held to identify important ecosystem services for the community and areas of high conservation value. This space also made it possible to answer questions and open an enriching debate with the attendees, demonstrating once again that collaboration and transparency are fundamental to the success of initiatives such as this one.
We continue working to make Rolón Cué and Villa Zenaida an example of how nature-based solutions (NBS) can have a lasting positive impact on the environment and local communities.