Background

The Indigenous Au Dam (Tepehuano) community, meaning “Man of the Mountains”, has sustainably managed its communally owned land in the Sierra Madre Occidental, Mexico, for over a century. This 100-year Improved Forest Management project protects and enhances 153,065 hectares of pine and oak forests, including Cerro Gordo, a sacred mountain and the region’s highest peak. While the community is a national benchmark for sustainable forestry (FSC-certified since 2008), threats such as illegal logging, wildfires, and pests require more robust solutions. The project integrates climate action with economic and social development to ensure both ecosystem resilience and long-term community well-being.

Project Activities

Core activities focus on:

• Sustainable forest management: Silvicultural treatments, selective harvesting, planting native species, and natural forest regeneration.
• Forest protection & surveillance: Preventing illegal logging, land-use change, and unauthorized exploitation.
• Wildfire & pest prevention: Establishing proactive measures to maintain forest health.
• Community-based enterprises: Jobs and businesses in forestry, carpentry, aquaculture, ecotourism, and local services.

MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, Verification)

The project follows the Mexico Forest Protocol v3.0 under the Climate Action Reserve (CAR), ensuring transparency and rigor.

• Remote sensing & GIS analysis: Tracking forest cover and canopy health.
• Field surveys: Biomass inventories, biodiversity assessments, and soil/water monitoring.
• Annual CAR reports: Publicly available, providing data transparency.
• Impact: The project removes an estimated 210,227 tCO₂e annually (over 6.3 million CRTs in 30 years) across a 145,346 -hectare activity area, with a 30.86% buffer pool to ensure permanence and zero leakage risk.

Additionality & Finance

The project is ecologically, financially, and technologically additional. Carbon finance is indispensable for funding activities beyond traditional timber income.

Investment allocation:

• 35% Carbon reserves
• 25% Social strengthening
• 25% Forest rights
• 10% Monitoring
• 5% Staffing
• This structure ensures that over 79% of all funds flow directly back into the community and ecosystem.

Co-Benefits

• Climate resilience: Improved soil fertility, water access, and watershed protection.
• Biodiversity protection: Safeguards 398 identified species and 23 at-risk species under NOM-059, including all six Mexican felines (jaguar, puma, ocelot, margay, jaguarundi, bobcat).
• Social development: Creates 400+ jobs and supports 1,420 families in 13 villages. Investments strengthen education, healthcare, infrastructure, food security (agriculture and trout farms), and access to renewable energy (solar panels).
• Gender equality: Women’s active participation in forestry, governance, and sustainable production.

Additional Selling Points

• FSC-certified since 2008 – recognized as a national leader in sustainable forestry.
• Indigenous-led conservation – community ownership and decision-making.
• Cultural heritage – Cerro Gordo, sacred to the Tepehuano people, protected as the “Weather of All” and source of major regional rivers.
• High transparency – more than 30 KPIs monitored annually to track environmental, social, and economic performance.

Carbon Offset

Climate Action Reserve