MORELIA, MICHOACÁN – May 17th, 2021 – Initiative 20×20 is a country-led effort to protect and begin restoring 50 million hectares of land in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2030. Seventeen national governments and Bolivia’s Santa Cruz province have committed to align policies and investment to restore land by 2030 at a level that could help the region advance towards carbon neutrality in 2050, estimated by the United Nations Environment Program to be 250 million hectares.
On May 18-20, the Initiative 20×20 Annual Partners Meeting will convene seven ministers and vice-ministers of Latin American and Caribbean countries and representatives of more than 20 impact funds and hundreds of technical experts virtually. The meeting’s theme is “Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Action.”
Ejido Verde will receive the Initiative 20×20 Project Award —recognizing its impact as a restoration project in 2020, especially as it inspires and informs others to bring 50M hectares into restoration. Restoring one hectare of land in Latin America can bring $1,140 in value, and globally, every $1 invested in restoration can lead to $7-30 in economic benefits.
Relevant milestones announced this year by Ejido Verde include:
- The company planted 9 million trees on degraded lands and maintained 4,280 hectares of commercial agroforestry plantations reforested with native pine trees, capturing 86,892 tons of carbon in 2020 alone, and expecting to capture over 2.2M tons by 2040
- In 2020, 1,199 jobs and 1,065 hours of formal training were generated for rural and Indigenous communities in Michoacán, including 69 women paid 1.8x the minimum livable wage
- Since 2011, the organization has created alliances with 13 communities and 1 private property in Michoacán, strengthening resilience with 625 family farms
“Initiative 20×20 is grateful that Ejido Verde’s contribution was achieved despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Walter Vergara, Senior Fellow at World Resources Institute and Coordinator of Initiative 20×20. “If Latin American and Caribbean countries can follow suit and move closer to carbon neutrality while offering sustainable products to help satisfy their rapidly-growing global demand, this commitment could be a significant contribution to our planet’s health.”
“We are committed to ensuring soil regeneration and building community well-being with profitable investments,” said Ejido Verde CEO Shaun Paul. “Ejido Verde is mobilizing investments in community-based landscape restoration that has included accepting contributions from 10,000 providers of capital in 78 countries. We are now discussing with additional institutional investors and family offices the best ways to partner while on track to secure an oversubscribed US$12M investment round toward our goal of establishing 12,000 hectares of commercial agroforestry with a total US$50M in capitalization.”
ABOUT
Ejido Verde is a regenerative pine-resin company positioned to become a lead supplier in the $10-billion global pine chemicals industry in partnership with rural and indigenous Mexican communities, as well an array of Mexican and international organizations, including the United Nations Development Programme’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN). On an average day, Ejido Verde plants 3,000 native trees that restore degraded Indigenous lands, creates a new living wage job for people to steward new forests in their community, and removes 100 tons of carbon from the atmosphere. In 2020, Ejido Verde was named one of the “Most Innovative Companies” in Latin America, according to Fast Company. Learn more and join the conversation on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Initiative 20×20 is a country-led effort to protect and begin restoring 50 million hectares of land in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2030. Governments, impact investors and technical partners launched the initiative in 2014 at COP20 in Lima with a commitment to begin restoring 20 million hectares of degraded land by 2020. Now, member nations and partners are working to make the region carbon neutral by 2050 by protecting and revitalizing 250 million hectares of landscapes for people, the climate and biodiversity. To learn more, visit: initiative20x20.org
Press contact – Mexico: Alejandro Rulfo, Ejido Verde, +52 55 6967 5762, comunicacion@ejidoverde.com
Press contact – U.S.: Marissa Feinberg, +1 917 494 5041, marissa@triplebottomwhy.com
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