LATAM has announced a new alliance with the Cataruben Foundation in CO2Bio, a project for the conservation and restoration of floodable savannah and forests in South America. Located in the Colombian Orinoquía, the project expects, to capture 11.3 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030 in a 575,000-hectare property of savannah and forests.
The Colombian Orinoquía project has the support of the Natural Wealth Program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and will benefit 700 families in the area along with helping biodiversity, water regulation and carbon capture.
CO2Bio is part of the LATAM sustainability strategy that has set the following goals
- carbon neutral growth with respect to 2019,
- reduce/offset the equivalent of 50 per cent of domestic emissions by 2030 and
- be carbon neutral by 2050.
The project promotes and implements conservation plans based on sustainability criteria and the historical use of the land, involving the community in protection actions, in addition to establishing good practices so that they can make sustainable use of the resources available in this important ecosystem.
In addition to the protection of key ecosystems such as continental wetlands, the CO2Bio project is home to more than 2,000 species, including seven vulnerable bird species, five species of diurnal butterflies that are in a state of danger, in addition to other species in a state of vulnerability or critical danger that make this type of project focused on protecting their habitat urgent.
“In the Colombian Orinoquía, three fundamental elements converge for the fulfilment of the goals we have set ourselves as humanity; conserve biodiversity, protect water sources and increase carbon capture, characteristics that we share with different areas of South America and that we hope can serve as an example to implement similar mechanisms in other countries of the region, where communities are actively involved in the conservation of strategic ecosystems for the world”, commented Eduwin Hincapié, Manager of the Biodiversity Strategy, Carbon and Water of the Cataruben Foundation.
“With this new strategic alliance with Cataruben, LATAM reaffirms its commitment to promote a collaborative compensation model, which not only impacts climate change through greater CO2 capture, but also contributes to improving the quality of life of the communities and the protection of biodiversity”, said Roberto Alvo, CEO of LATAM Airlines Group.
LATAM promotes compensation programmes focused on the conservation of strategic ecosystems. To do this, it considers several aspects. On one hand, projects must be collaborative and include strategic ecosystems capable of absorbing large amounts of CO2 and count with communities capable of protecting them.
In terms of eligibility criteria, it must be a project with focus on nature-based solutions, that has environmental, social and economic co-benefits, that are linked to the community, that has allies that empower it, and that is scalable.
In 2021, LATAM Airlines Colombia offset 334,144 tons of carbon dioxide by purchasing carbon credits through the CO2Bio conservation initiative in the Colombian Orinoquía and the Carmen del Darien REDD+, Mutata REDD+, ACAPA BMF REDD+, Bajo Calima, and Bahia Malaga projects, located in the departments of Choco, Antioquia, Narino, and Valle del Cauca.
