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Offsetting CO2 successfully

A project of the Climate Partnership Karlsruhe-San Miguel de Los Bancos (Nakopa 2016-2019)

The City of Karlsruhe in Germany and the Canton of San Miguel de los Bancos in Ecuador launched a climate partnership at the beginning of 2015. Ambitious goals on the part of both municipalities form the cornerstone for active cooperation in the field of climate action.

Fog over a dense green forest.
The project area – the cloud forest in the Canton of San Miguel de los Bancos in Ecuador. Photo: Karlsruher Energie- und Klimaschutzagentur

The vision of the Ecuadorian Canton of San Miguel de Los Bancos and its 20,000 inhabitants is to create a 'green canton'. This goal is in line with Karlsruhe's ambition to be climate neutral by 2050. The basic idea of the partnership is to strengthen professional cooperation between the municipalities of Karlsruhe and San Miguel de los Bancos in the field of climate action. This includes especially reafforestation, but also renewable energy, waste management and sustainable tourism.

Reafforestation with the Nakopa 'Carbon Offsetting Project'

The region and nearby Mindo, which is home to the Nambillo National Park, are known worldwide for their high biodiversity and density of different bird species. To preserve this diversity, large areas of contiguous forest are required. However, in the past 30 years large areas of cloud forest have been cleared to make way for cattle breeding. Today, only five per cent of the canton's area is covered by natural forest. The canton wishes to redress this through reafforestation activities and educational work. It is being actively supported by the City of Karlsruhe, where the Karlsruhe Energy and Climate Protection Agency (KEK) is providing technical support for the project.

To offset flight emissions that arose in connection with the project '50 Municipal Climate Partnerships by 2015', from 2016 to 2019 the reafforestation project was supported with special funds delivered by the Service Agency Communities in One World. More than 9,000 native trees were planted on nine hectares of former pastureland on the western slope of the Andes, thus creating new forest areas in the long term.

Surrounded by lush greenery, three men plant seedlings.
Workers planting new trees. Photo: Karlsruher Energie- und Klimaschutzagentur

Care was taken to keep the intervention in the existing ecosystem to a minimum. The gradual conversion of the grassland into forest allowed the fauna and flora to adapt to the new conditions. To enable the young plants to assert themselves against the aggressive grass of the pasture areas, they were maintained for two years and dead plants were replaced. Over a crediting period of twelve years, the project will bind approximately 2,000 tonnes of CO2.

As part of the project, two public information events were held for local citizens. One was for pupils of the local grammar school, which is already linked to Karlsruhe via a school exchange on the topics of reafforestation and the forest ecosystem. The second was for residents of the project area, in order to raise their awareness of the importance of successful reafforestation.

Even after the end of the project, the commitment will continue. The local government elected in May 2019 is employing workers to maintain the site. It will secure the land for the long term, and is in dialogue with the local population and citizens in other cantons concerning the positive lessons learned in the project. The project has thus transferred knowledge and practical experience as a basis for future reafforestation.