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Scolel’te – Mexico

A man in a cap stands side-on next to a tree

About the project

Scolel’te (“the tree that grows” in Mayan Tzeltal language) is the world’s longest-running ecosystem services project on the Voluntary Carbon Market and traded the world’s first voluntary carbon credits.

It dates back to a pilot programme in 1994 and was officially operational three years later.

It has been running on a commercially self-sufficient basis since 2002 under the leadership of AMBIO, a Mexican environmental non-profit cooperative that coordinates the project and organises field activities in cooperation with various community groups, smallholder farmers and social organisations. Through reforestation, improved land management, and agroforestry, the project improves local smallholder livelihoods while increasing the region’s biodiversity.

King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa) on a branch in a tree
King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa)
  • A man in a cap stands side-on next to a tree
  • A drone shot of a forest
  • A man stands under a tree in a forest
  • King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa) on a branch in a tree
  • A hand holding a seedling in front of a row of other seedlings
  • A wooded hill with a blue sky above
  • A man in a grey t-shirt standing in a forested area
  • A group of people standing in a clearing in a forest
  • A man in a cap stands side-on next to a tree
  • A drone shot of a forest
  • A man stands under a tree in a forest
  • King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa) on a branch in a tree
  • A hand holding a seedling in front of a row of other seedlings
  • A wooded hill with a blue sky above
  • A man in a grey t-shirt standing in a forested area
  • A group of people standing in a clearing in a forest

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