Panel Discussion: Plan Vivo's Regional Presence

How can we strengthen Plan Vivo's regional presence, and what are the opportunities for Plan Vivo in each region? This panel discussion formed part of Plan Vivo's 25th anniversary event which took place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The event brought together around 90 Plan Vivo stakeholders to celebrate where the Plan Vivo has come from, what the Foundation has achieved, and our aims for the future.

Plan Vivo now has 27 operational projects spanning Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific. For this discussion, we brought together various project representatives from each of these regions. The panellists include Helena Barona, representing Scolel'te, the very first Plan Vivo certified project, and Pauline Nantongo, representing Trees for Global Benefits, Plan Vivo's second oldest project.

  

  

Two of our project representatives, Emmy Primadona (from the Bujang Ruba project located in Indonesia) and Bah Tambor Lyngdoh (from the Khasi Hills project located India) were unable to attend the event. You can watch their presentations below. 

  

Bujang Raba Presentation

Khasi Hills Presentation

 

    

Moderator

    

Eva Schoof Plan Vivo 

Eva Schoof, Programme & Regional Strategies Manager

Eva has worked at Plan Vivo for eight years and leads the projects team. Eva was instrumental in the development of the Plan Vivo Standard v5.0 (released in 2022) and is currently leading our regional expansion moving forward. 

  

 

Panellists

  

 

Robbie Henderson, Founder & CEO, the Nakau Programme

(the Pacific Islands)

Robbie is the founder and CEO of the Nakau Programme, an innovative payments for Ecosystems Services (PES) model which consists of the (Plan Vivo certified) Nakau Methodology Framework. Robbie is a champion of community owned projects which ensure benefits flow directly back to community landowners. The Nakau Programme operates three Plan Vivo certified REDD projects, all owned by indigenous communities. 

 

  

Pauline Nantongo, Executive Director, ECOTRUST

(East Africa / Uganda) 

Pauline is the executive director of ECOTRUST (the Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda), a not-for-profit established in 1999 to conserve biological diversity and enhance social welfare by promoting innovative and sustainable environmental management. ECOTRUST developed Trees for Global Benefits, a Plan Vivo certified project that works with more than 15,000 smallholder farmers in Uganda and has generated in excess of 2 million PVCs (Plan Vivo Certificates). 

 

 

   

Helena Barona, Sales Manager, AMBIO

(Latin America / Mexico) 

Helena is the Carbon Offsets Sales Manager at AMBIO, who oversee the Scolel'te project in Chiapas, Mexico. Scolel'te has been operating since the 1990s and was the very first Plan Vivo certified project. The project was also the first to trade carbon credits on the voluntary carbon market. The project now works with more than 1400 smallholder farmers. 

 

 

 
  Tambor Lyngdoh, Project Leader, Khasi Hills
 
(India)
 
Bah Tambor is a determined conservationist and the Khasi Hills project leader, a REDD project safeguarding more than 27,000ha of cloud forest in Maghalaya, India. The project involves ten indigenous communities and 85 villages, and through avoided deforestation and assisted natural regeneration has generated 349,841 PVCs (as of October 2022). 
 

  

 

 
 
Emmy Primadona, Project Leader, Bujang Raba
 
(Indonesia)
 
 Emmy is the Project Leader for the Bujang Raba project, which protects Sumatra's tropical and mountainous forest through a REDD intervention programme. Overseen by KKI Warsi, the project involves 5 indigenous communities and capitalises upon avoided deforestation and agroforestry to generate carbon reductions and removals whilst protecting numerous endangered and threatened species. 
  

 

  

Mark Poffenberger Plan Vivo
   
 
Mark Pfoffenberger,  Plan Vivo trustee & representative for the Khasi Hills & Bujang Raba projects
 
(Asia - Indonesia / India) 
 
Mark specializes in NRM, yet draws on agro-ecology, anthropology, forest practice, public administration, land use planning, and economics. He has 20 years of in-country experience in Nepal, India, and Indonesia. Mark has conducted research and implemented development programs through working with government agencies, universities, NGOs, bilateral donors, and multinational development banks.
    

    

We'd like to thank our moderator, Eva Schoof, and all our panellists for taking part in this discussion. 

  

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