Reforestation Initiative
The Issues
The Yalijux – Cacquipec – Xucaneb cloud forest corridor has experienced an unprecedented amount of illegal deforestation over the past thirty years. On the whole, these deforestations happen not because people are harvesting valuable trees, but simply because the demand for agricultural land continues to rise. This dynamic converts primary cloud forest into steep, rocky cornfields and cattle pastures with very little agricultural value. If trends continue over the next thirty years, the cloud forests of this mountain chain will be gone. Dedicated to saving these forests, CCFC is currently and actively reforesting, restoring, and protecting these ecologically sensitive areas.
Deforestation and slash and burn agriculture contribute to global climate change, releasing thousands of tons of carbon into the atmosphere. Planting trees and restoring forests can mitigate the negative effects of deforestation. Restoration of cloud forests can also increase water absorption, replenish dried springs, decrease the risks of flooding and landslides, create and enhance habitat, and prevent soil erosion.*1
Donate
The Program
CCFC has identified over 1,000 acres of Priority Reforestation Areas (PRAs), all of which are within one of two Important Bird Areas (IBAs). Our Reforestation Initiative has pinpointed these areas, acre by acre. CCFC is entering into reforestation agreements with plantation owners and cloud forest villages that will protect and restore these forests. Because the Yalijux – Cacquipec – Xucaneb corridor is so densely populated, CCFC’s reforestation projects involve the whole community. We create project “buy in” among village families through education, field trips and job opportunities. These partnerships allow CCFC not only to reforest PRAs, but also to secure long-term conservation easements on lands vulnerable to agricultural encroachment.
CCFC plants a wide variety of native trees including endangered tree species such as Pinus chiapensis.
Pinus chiapensis is an example of a species of tree being lost with the loss of forests in northern Central America. Pinus chiapensis is a tree component of the cloud forest. By including chiapensis in the mix of forest restoration CCFC is helping protect an endangered species of tree.
Donate now! Your donation of $1,000 (US) sponsors the reforestation of one acre of illegally deforested land in the Sierra Xucaneb.
“Humanity is cutting down its forests, apparently oblivious to the fact that we may not be able to live without them.”
-Isaac Asimov
“Do not cut down the tree that gives you shade.”
-Arabian proverb
The Impact
For every sponsored acre, CCFC reforests, restores and protects one acre of illegally destroyed cloud forest.
Investment in each acre includes:
- establishing 153 large trees species (native cloud forest species);
- planting 65 woody plants and establishing orchids;
- securing easements for long term protection of area;
- teaching owners and / or neighboring villages about the value of the cloud forest
- six years of reforestation maintenance to allow seedlings to establish themselves.
This project is funded an acre at a time by thoughtful and caring individuals like you. You can make it happen. Sponsor an acre of restoration and conservation and help us bring back the cloud forest.
CCFC is proud to share with donors GPS coordinates and Google Earth shape files of sponsored reforestations. Visiting service learning groups are more than welcome to help CCFC plant native cloud forest trees.
“Tropical forests provide a cooling effect through the long-term removal of carbon from the atmosphere and by increasing sky albedo via cloud generation.”
“Forests have a cooling effect on our climate because they store vast amounts of carbon in tree trunks, branches, leaves and soil. They keep this carbon out of the atmosphere for as long as they remain healthy, intact forests. If they are cleared or degraded, there is a net flow of carbon to the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.”
Daniel Nepstad, Senior Scientist, Earth Innovation Institute and Lead Author, IPCC AR, from the New York Times
“They absorb carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide and give out oxygen. What could be more desirable? And they look good in the bargain. Stop chopping down the rain forests and plant more saplings, and we’re on our way.”
-Isaac Asimov, 1988
The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best time is now.
-Anonymous
The Chicagoland Bird Conservation Network (BCN) in cooporation with Community Cloud Forest Conservation
*1 (foot note: C Harvey, 2013. “Climate Smart Landscapes: Opportunities and Challenges for Integrating Adaptation and Mitigation in Tropical Agriculture”)