Projects

How are my credits spent?

Without offsetting reforestation projects it will be nearly impossible to reduce greenhouse gases to non-threatening levels. It is crucial for the sustainability of the planet that we invest in our trees and green spaces. Protecting and developing degraded ecosystems and other reforestation project are an integral piece of the solution to eradicating global warming.

In efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change, clearfootprints.com has teamed up with Ecosystem Restoration Associates (ERA) reforesting and restoring degraded ecosystems in communities in British Columbia, Canada.

About ERA

Founded in 2004, Ecosystem Restoration Associates (ERA) spearheads projects aimed at afforestation and restoring degraded ecosystems. Working closely with government, First Nations, and local communities, ERA is dedicated to providing objective research and education in carbon sequestering science.

ERA has teamed up with Community Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (CERI). CERI is an independent, non-profit research institute committed to providing education and research about issues pertaining to government, environment and business.

ERA understands buying carbon credits as a way to deal with global warming is a relatively new initiative and with anything new there is bound to be skepticism and inaccuracies.

ERA is committed to validating and verifying all projects with the highest industry standards. Providing objective and accurate research about the work we do is paramount. All project implementations are substantiated by registered professional biologists and professional foresters. ERA uses ISO-14064-2, an international standard of regulating and monitoring ecosystem restoration projects. The ISO-14064-2 has been developed and approved in 50 countries and been approved as a National Standard of Canada.

Maple Ridge

In 2006, CERI launched a program targeted at restoring over 260, 000 trees in the District of Maple Ridge. Currently over 60,000 trees have been planted. ERA has also been working with the community developing some of the parks in the region including Allco Park, Horseman Park, Selvy Park and Ruskin Park.

Mission

ERA is in the developmental stages of a new project in Mission. The project will take place in areas such as Steve Lake. Many public parks will be undergoing reforestation, beautification and wild life restoration.

Langley

ERA will be working within the city limits of Langley and surrounding area. After winning the development bid in 2007, ERA is in the process of laying the ground work for developing the degraded municipal lands. The upgrade and restoration of many of the urban parks in this area will be appreciated by the community of Langley.

Trees: Mother Nature's Solution to Carbon

Scientists and inventors are developing energy-efficient and fossil-fuel-free alternatives to our out-dated and environmentally harmful ways of life. Renewable energy offsetting projects such as solar and biomass work towards diminishing our carbon outputs. Eventually, we will no longer need to rely heavily on burning fossil fuels or traditional sources of energy. But what about the already-existing billions of tonnes of carbon in the atmosphere?

The planet's natural way of absorbing excess carbon is simple: trees. Trees sequester atmospheric carbon in a process called photosynthesis. One acre of trees absorbs 2.6 tonnes of carbon per year. For millions of years, tree have been a major component in keeping carbon levels low. We have done the earth a dual disservice: not only have we filled the atmosphere with harmful gases we have also removed wholesale its natural mechanism for eliminating them.

Deforestation results in 25 % of the the problem of climate change, and in countries such as China and India up to 75 % of greenhouse gas emission is caused by deforestation. Thirty percent of the world's original forest has been converted into maintained forests and almost 50 % has been cut down. Now, we are left with only 20 % of the world's original forest remains intact. As it is, the trees on this planet are not enough to sequester the enormous amount of carbon emitted each year.*

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