Carbon Offsets

TFI
Tropical Forestry Initiative

OFFSET YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT
by SAVING A TROPICAL FOREST

Step 1:
Enter information about your energy usage to calculate your annual carbon footprint in tons. Go to the calculator, and then return here with a number. Or, you can just use the average of 20 tons per person in your household.

What is a Carbon Footprint?
Every year, the average American produces approximately 20 tons of CO2. This comes from a variety of sources that we use in our everyday lives: cars, airplanes, home electricity and heating, and even our waste (garbage). The carbon dioxide released through our consumption of fossil fuels (gas, diesel, oil) is released into the atmosphere where it exacerbates the greenhouse effect on our planet. This gas is responsible for much of the global climate change we are experiencing now and will continue to feel through the future. Such effects of high levels of CO2 include drastic weather events and can even result in the loss of entire ecosystems through temperature increases.

Step 2:
Multiply the number of tons by $15 to determine the cost of offsetting your carbon footprint.

What can you do about it?

TFI is instituting a carbon offsetting program where you can make your car, your home, your lifestyle, carbon neutral. By planting one tree in the tropics, 1 ton of CO2 will be taken out of the atmosphere over the course of the tree’s life. Therefore, through reforestation, massive amounts of carbon can be sequestered in forests. By spending a mere $15/ton CO2 that you emit, you can become carbon neutral for the year, while also reforesting denuded landscapes in Costa Rica.

Step 3:
Write a check to "Tropical Forestry Initiative" and send it to
Tropical Forestry Initiative
PO Box 261
Binghamton, NY, 13903-0261
You will receive a certificate showing the number of trees planted and the tons of carbon offset.

Step 4:
Repeat as appropriate, depending on the period (or activity) used in calculating your carbon footpring, E.g. by year, by month, or by plane trip.

Deforested River

Tree Nursery

Why Tropical Forestry Initiative?
Tropical Forestry Initiative is a non profit organization (so your donation is tax-deductible) that has been part of a small Costa Rican community for more than 15 years. We differ from most other carbon offset programs in that:

we plant trees that are NATIVE to the region
we plant them in MIXED plantations instead of monocultures.and
we focus much of our efforts on ENDANGERED tree species.

We are doing our best to regenerate the natural forests that existed before deforestation occurred.

The trees planted are part of a larger watershed restoration project planned for the Guabo Valley in the southwestern portion of the country. Previously strong streams now run dry because forests have been cut to the very stream bed. Large rivers grow huge and turn brown with the sediment coming off the deforested landscape. This sediment is the very fertility of the land, and with every rain event, more and more fertility is leaving. Water has been deemed unfit to drink because cattle waste passes unfiltered directly into streams that run through pastures.

The funds generated through this offset program will go to developing a 3 to 5 year reforestation and watershed protection stream. Land owners will be paid the equivalent of approximately $2 for each tree planted, spaced out over the course of 3 years. Every year we will return to check on the status of the trees and to take measurements. If the land owner wishes to continue to receive payments, they have to take care of the tree until it is big enough to outcompete the surrounding vegetation.

Through this program we hope not only to protect streams and rivers, but also to create biological corridors that will enable animals to move freely through once fragmented landscapes.