Rio Tinto commits $16M to the Makira Natural Park REDD+ Project in Madagascar

Rio Tinto (RIO) has committed $16M to the Makira Natural Park REDD+ Project in northern Madagascar, through a new partnership with the Wildlife Conservation Society, or WCS, and Everland. This commitment complements Rio Tinto’s investment in nature-based solutions in the south-east of the country. The Makira Natural Park REDD+ Project encompasses 372,000 hectares of dense primary forest. One of the largest remaining rainforests in the country, harboring 17 species of lemur and more than 50% of Madagascar’s botanical diversity, Makira is critical to the protection of species found nowhere else in the world. Home to approximately 90,000 people who live in 120 villages in the project area, the project works to build the capacity of communities to practice more sustainable agriculture and avoid deforesting new areas. Rio Tinto’s commitment will allow the project to scale up and improve protected area management and bring funds that will directly benefit the rural communities living in and around the park. These funds will allow the project to reassess the deforestation baseline according to the latest Verified Carbon Standard, or VCS, and Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards before credit issuance. Funding will also support monitoring and reporting on the impact of ongoing interventions to reduce deforestation, protect threatened biodiversity, and bring durable improvements to local communities, including increasing their involvement and agency in forest and wildlife protection activities. Rio Tinto’s investment also includes a committed offtake of carbon credits from the project.