Equitable Earth

👁️ Our October 2024 newsletter weaves together magical realism, Indigenous solutions, carbon accounting, Mexican history, and Climate Week NYC.

We are profoundly inspired by this story about Gustavo Sánchez Valle from Jalisco, México. Gustavo is a founding member of Equitable Earth’s Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Guidance Council: Ancient Medicine and Modern Solutions for a New Carbon Standard By Josh Berry Magical realism saturates the rural countryside of Jalisco, Mexico, and it plays an important role in Gustavo Sánchez Valle’s work as an advocate and representative of forest communities in Latin America. Historically, magical realism in literature and art has enabled marginalized and oppressed communities to safely and powerfully express their own reality. A reality, much like the art form, that is often ignored or seen as unbelievable by authoritative and colonialist powers. Magical realism is similarly indebted to the cosmology of indigenous and traditional cultures of Latin America. These forces are built and cultivated over thousands of years of oral history in a constant process of adaptation, resilience, knowledge sharing, and storytelling. Gustavo Sánchez Valle is a founding member of the Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Guidance Council at Equitable Earth. He is trained to represent and advocate for the interests of forest communities. In this work he balances the many orbits – and competing interests – of traditional communities, indigenous peoples, agroforestry companies, government agencies, small-scale farming collectives and multinational conservation groups. This complex balance underscores the diverse realities of urban and rural, western and indigenous, industrial and artisanal. Gustavo and the communities he works with must face these influences every day. This reality is a modern-day expression of a long held tension between indigenous and colonial roots – and places like Mexico are powerful embodiments of this complex truth. Gustavo’s hometown of Sayula is a nerve center for Mexico’s magical realism movement. It is also the hometown of the Mexican author Juan Rulfo, an internationally celebrated artist and one of the first modern writers to pioneer the literary style of magical realism for other Latin American artists such as Gabriel García Márquez, Jorge Luis Borges, and Isabel Allende. Gustavo’s roots in this distinctive and vibrant place include his parents’ migration to Sayula and the indigenous origins of his grandmothers. His family tree dating so far back is unwritten due to the ancient oral storytelling of the region and its many people, but Gustavo’s indigenous genealogy most likely comes from the Teuchitlán tradition. This is an original culture from western Mexico that dates back at least 3,000 years. Gustavo grew up immersed in this region that author Juan Rulfo called, “the plain in flames” due to its strong tradition of agricultural life and peasant struggles for land ownership. 📖 Read the whole story: https://lnkd.in/d49A7NHT

📣 🌲 “It’s important to protect the people who are protecting the forest. It’s important to pay the people who are protecting the forest.” - Puyr Tembé. We are deeply inspired by last night’s sold out screening of “We Are Guardians" at the Angelika Film Center in New York City! Presented by Equitable Earth and Global Citizen, the film was followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers and crew, moderated by Beto Borges. Beto is the Chair of Equitable Earth’s Indigenous Peoples & Local Communities Advisory Group. We heard powerful testimonies from our esteemed panelists: "It's important to get finance to Indigenous territories. The film shows the reality of the people living in the territory. We need to support the activities they’re doing. We need to help them achieve the important work of protecting the environment. It’s important to protect the people who are protecting the forest. It's important to pay the people who are protecting the forest.”  — Puyr Tembé, Secretary of Indigenous Peoples of the State of Pará, Brazil. Puyr Tembé is a leader of the Tembé Indigenous Peoples from Alto Rio Guamá in the Brazilian Amazon and is co-founder of The National Association of Indigenous Ancestral Women Warriors (ANMIGA). “[We Are Guardians] is not only a documentary, it is a call to action… a call for shared responsibility [to protect Indigenous Peoples and the forests they steward]. We indigenous are on the front line, but we need support from people all over the world.”  — Sônia Guajajara, Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Brazil. About the film: In the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, thousands of people are unlawfully invading protected lands, devastating centuries-old forests for resources and fast profits. Now as the health of the entire Amazon teeters at the edge, will Brazil and the world take notice? Indigenous forest guardian Marçal Guajajara and Indigenous leader Puyr Tembé stand at the frontlines of this fight, risking their lives to protect their ancestral lands from relentless invasions and deforestation. On the other side – Valdir, an illegal logger, is trapped in a desperate struggle to make ends meet and sees no other way than continuing to cut down the forest. This is the powerful narrative at the heart of "We Are Guardians" — a story of hope and resilience amidst an unfolding crisis. Learn more about the documentary film: https://lnkd.in/eZKiF2vd In the photos: (1) Puyr Tembé, Minister Sônia Guajajara and Congresswoman Célia Xacriabá. (2) the cast and producers with directors Edivan Guajajara, and Chelsea Greene. (3) the film's cast answering questions with post-screening panel moderator Beto Borges. Photo 1 by Katie G. Nelson / katiegnelson.com #climateweeknyc  #climateaction

One of Equitable Earth's most important offerings is a new approach in efficient and accurate greenhouse gas accounting. The accuracy of biomass data has direct repercussions for the integrity of climate financing and claims related to forest conservation and restoration. Equitable Earth’s technology partner in greenhouse gas accounting, Chloris Geospatial, measures carbon stock and change to bring more precise, timely, and automated data to the table. This new approach enhances the efficiency and accuracy of GHG accounting compared to legacy land cover change techniques used in the REDD+ space. Instead of depending on rough estimates of logged or cut trees (activity data), which is currently the norm in climate data science, Chloris technology captures continuous forest degradation and growth via remote sensing, which significantly advances the accuracy in measuring actual carbon stock and continual change of the living forest. Chloris measures biomass change at the pixel level, unlocking significant advances in location-specific monitoring, baseline setting, and uncertainty measurement at resolutions not previously possible. Chloris applies the same LiDAR-based methodology across geographies, which improves the ability to reliably compare projects across the world over time. Chloris’s cloud-based data software allows users to accelerate project development and help optimize constrained budgets to prioritize on-the-ground activities. Historically, carbon stock estimation has been achieved by comparing categorical and imprecise interpretations of land cover, such as forest and non-forest. This approach allowed for considerable errors, potentially overlooking significant biomass gains and losses critical to understanding greenhouse gas emissions and removals. For example: a “forest” can still be classified as forest – and hence no emissions reported – even though carbon stocks may have decreased significantly. From an atmospheric and climate integrity perspective, this is problematic. Conversely, because Chloris results deliver continuous measurement of biomass change at the pixel level, they can detect statistically significant changes in above-ground biomass. Equitable Earth will periodically evaluate the results of Chloris’ carbon stock and change assessments using an independent group of third party experts, maintaining transparency and credibility while respecting the proprietary nature of the methods employed. Read this entire in-depth article here: https://lnkd.in/g4E4QvSr

💡 Recently we sat down with our technical partner Chloris Geospatial to explore how we use innovative technologies and high quality data to improve accuracy and transparency in carbon accounting. 📣 How did Chloris Geospatial start and what were its initial goals? Chloris Geospatial was founded in 2021 to address a critical gap in the voluntary carbon market: the need for detailed data to measure carbon stored in vegetation, driven by cutting-edge carbon monitoring science.  Co-founders Marco Albani and Dr. Alessandro Baccini, leveraging over 20 years of expertise in forest science, remote sensing, and climate action, recognized the need for accurate, scalable and cost-effective data to help businesses understand their impact on nature. Together with Mark Friedl and Giulio Boccaletti, they established Chloris to fill this gap in the digital measuring, reporting, and verification (dMRV) space. Utilizing advanced machine learning, AI, and amassed data from different types of sensors and imaging systems (sensor fusion), Chloris’ goal is to support businesses in understanding their environmental impact and promoting a net-zero and nature-positive future by providing scalable and reliable forest carbon data. 🎤 How would you explain the basics of what Chloris does and how its technology works, to someone who is unfamiliar with your work or with the industry? Chloris is a technology company specializing in generating data and insights on the amount of carbon stored in trees and how it changes over time. These carbon changes are caused by the loss of standing trees, which emit carbon into the atmosphere, and from the growth of trees, which absorb carbon from the atmosphere. To measure these changes accurately, we leverage our unique remote sensing expertise in the field and process terabytes of raw data collected by several Earth Observation sensors. This is made possible thanks to advances in cloud-computing, Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and advanced remote-sensing science. Our technology allows us to create robust carbon data for any area of interest, anywhere in the world, in a very efficient way. It offers a solution for more quality, consistency and comparability of forest carbon data and thereby strengthens the development, certification and monitoring of forest carbon projects around the world. 🎙 What sets you apart from other DMRV providers? Chloris is a pioneer of what is referred to as “direct biomass estimation.” It is a new approach that measures forest carbon changes from space, providing location-specific carbon data with full scalability and consistency. It is a significant departure from traditional methods that derive carbon estimates from land cover categories and their changes (activity data) and average carbon values (emission factors). Those approaches can overlook significant biomass gains and losses that are critical to understand... Read the entire article: https://lnkd.in/guB59dvB

🎬 Join us at Climate Week NYC for an exclusive screening of We Are Guardians 🍿 Together with Global Citizen we are hosting an exclusive screening of the award-winning documentary, "We Are Guardians" on September 23, 2024, at the legendary Angelika Film Center in New York City. This powerful film follows Indigenous activists in Brazil as they risk their lives to protect their ancestral forests. The film provides a raw and intimate look at those closest to the Amazon, revealing a crisis that affects us all and highlighting the urgent need for global action. ✏ Reserve your spot now: https://lnkd.in/eN-M7sfR Event details - September 23, 2024: 5:00 PM | Reception: Enjoy drinks and networking at the Angelika Film Center Café. 6:00 PM | Film Screening: Opening remarks by Michael Sheldrick, Co-Founder of Global Citizen, followed by We Are Guardians. Post-Screening Fireside Chat: engage in a conversation with Beto Borges, Director of the Communities and Territorial Governance Initiative at Forest Trends Association; Puyr Tembé, First Secretary of Indigenous Peoples of the State of Pará; and the film’s directors, Edivan Guajajara and Chelsea Greene. 🔗 Reserve your spot now: https://lnkd.in/eN-M7sfR A limited number of tickets are available for this exclusive event. Please reserve your spot as soon as possible to ensure your participation. We look forward to seeing you there! About the Hosts: Equitable Earth is pioneering a new and revolutionary forest carbon standard to end deforestation and biodiversity loss, created for and guided by Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the Global South. 🌐 eq-earth.com Global Citizen is an action platform dedicated to achieving the end of extreme poverty, powered by a community of millions of Global Citizens who believe in one world, one people—where everyone has an equal chance to thrive. 🌐 globalcitizen.org For media inquiries: info@eq-earth.com #ClimateWeekNYC #WeAreGuardians #IndigenousRights #deforestation #climateaction

Welcome to our latest newsletter, Forest Wisdom in Action. In this month's newsletter we feature a detailed Q&A about our pioneering carbon accounting technologies, and a list of can't-miss events at Climate Week NYC. #climate #conservation #climateweeknyc

One of the most interesting things about Climate Week NYC is the opportunity to meet, network, and take action with incredible leaders driving climate action in a wide range of fields. Sign up for Equitable Earth’s newsletter by 9/9/24 to see our detailed curated list of events and talks that we are co-hosting, participating in, or that we simply love. If you’re going to be there too and would like to meet with us, send us a message to request to meet with us in New York. Our activities at Climate Week NYC include a roundtable discussion about the future of forest carbon standards and several powerful presentations by Indigenous women reporting from the frontlines of climate action.  Here are the 2 public events at Climate Week NYC featuring the work led by Equitable Earth Coalition’s founding members. 🌍 🌲 New forest carbon standards and monitoring technologies - solutions out of the VCM crisis?  Tuesday, September 24, 2024 A roundtable conversation presented by Chloris Geospatial, our technical partners in digital monitoring, reporting and verification. Mike Korchinsky of Wildlife Works , an Equitable Earth Coalition founding member, will be discussing how Equitable Earth leverages Chloris Geospatial technology to bring carbon accounting accuracy and transparency to the voluntary carbon market. Request an invitation to this event and learn more: https://lu.ma/mwdfwqoh 🎸 🌎 Global Citizen Festival  Saturday, September 28, 2024 Equitable Earth Coalition member Global Citizen presents a music celebration calling on world and corporate leaders to take urgent action to defeat poverty, defend the planet and demand equity. Jean-Robert Bwangoy of Wildlife Works – and the grandson of a local chief from Mai Ndombe region in the Congo Basin rainforest – will set the stage for concert goers with a message to save our planet’s tropical forests by partnering with local forest communities. The festival also features a special appearance by the legendary and beloved Dr. Jane Goodall. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eX4YZR74 #climateweeknyc #climateaction #vcm #indigenouspeoples #climatefinance

This week at London Climate Action Week, our partners Peoples Forests Partnership, Wildlife Works and Chloris Geospatial are facilitating 2 timely and important conversations exploring community rights, carbon and biodiversity finance, and technology innovation in climate action: (1) Wildlife Works and Chloris Geospatial will be speaking at a roundtable discussion, “The role of tech innovation in scaling up private financing of natural climate solutions: closing the trust gap.” 🗓 Date: Wednesday, June 26 ⏰ Time: 1:00 PM - 3:30 PM 📍Location: 2 George Yard, London EC3V 9DH, UK Register here: https://lnkd.in/geX4Hyuf (2) The Ground Climate Action in Human Rights session is co-organized by Peoples Forests Partnership, Fauna & Flora and Natural Climate Solutions Alliance. 🗓 Date: June 26 ⏰ Time: 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM 📍Location: 80 Charlotte Street, London Join this pivotal discussion on strengthening community rights and achieving positive outcomes in climate action. Learn about the crucial role that carbon and biodiversity finance can and must play to get it right. Event Highlights: 🟢 Case Studies and Panelists from the UK, Liberia, Nepal, and Latin America. 🟢 In-depth discussions on integrating human rights into climate action. 🟢 Strategies to leverage carbon and biodiversity finance for better outcomes. Register here: https://lnkd.in/e-c4RVJb #climateaction #LCAM2024 #vcm

🌎 We are excited to announce a partnership with Chloris Geospatial as our exclusive provider of digital monitoring, reporting and verification (dMRV) of forest carbon data for our new forest carbon standard. Innovative technology like this is pivotal in our quest to help end deforestation and biodiversity loss. This partnership will allow projects verified with Equitable Earth to report more accurately than ever before. Chloris uses advanced scientific techniques to process new datasets from spaceborn instruments to measure above-ground biomass to capture carbon stock change with efficiency, transparency and high accuracy. “Partnering with Chloris marks a significant milestone for Equitable Earth as we pursue an innovative new approach to forest carbon standards,” said Beto Borges, Chair of the Equitable Earth Indigenous Peoples & Local Communities Advisory Group. “Our commitment is to serve the voluntary carbon market holistically, ensuring that our efforts not only meet scientific accuracy and independence but also benefit local communities. Chloris's dedication to independent, high-quality carbon mapping is crucial for achieving these goals.” Read more about this partnership at: https://lnkd.in/gHREveVp #climateaction #carbonmarket #vcm