A sustainable tropical carbon-offset forest managed by RTT and sponsored by the Mohegan Tribe (owners of the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut). The photo was taken in September, 2007, at which time the forest was 5 years, 2 months old.

The authors described an interview they conducted with Professor Gordon T. Geballe of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies regarding his impression of the RTT program.  The Nature Air blog quoted Professor Geballe, who described RTT as follows:

“[RTT is] a positive contribution to what people are doing around the world.  While it may be a small effort it is a major step in the right direction.  It also provides income for researchers and farmers in Costa Rica, which is an important part of the formula.”

The authors also interviewed Don Droppo, Jr., Senior Vice President for Curtis Packaging Corporation, an environmentally minded company specializing in the design and manufacture of superior folding cartons.  Curtis Packaging recently sponsored a carbon-offset forest with RTT, described here.  The Nature Air blog quoted Mr. Droppo about RTT and our Director, Dr. Herster Barres:

“Dr. Barres is a great dynamic gentleman with a passion for developing and executing a successful model to sequester and store US CO2 emissions in tropical farm reforestation projects through this applied research.  We partnered up with RTT last summer.  I was very impressed with his model and wanted to participate in UNEP Billion Tree Campaign.”

As RTT continues to develop and refine its applied research program for climate change mitigation through sustainable tropical farm forestry, we appreciate the continued enthusiasm and recognition from academic supporters, such as Professor Geballe, and our corporate participants, including Curtis Packaging.  We also extend our thanks to Nature Air for the publicity.

Contact RTT for more information about our ongoing research program and to learn how to sponsor your own carbon-offset forest.

NatureAir, a passenger airline in Costa Rica, is the world’s first certified carbon neutral airline.  Since 2004, NatureAir has helped protect and conserve over 500 acres of tropical forests in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica.  They also have the distinction of being Costa Rica’s first biodiesel aviation fueling company.

NatureAir’s strong environmental credentials have not escaped notice—last year NatureAir was selected by the United Nations Environment Programme to become the first airline in the world to join UNEP’s Climate Neutral Network.

Wildlife in a Costa Rican carbon-offset forest managed by Reforest the Tropics, Inc.

The folks at NatureAir also maintain a blog that keeps up to speed with important environmental issues in Costa Rica and around the world.  Reforest the Tropics (RTT) is proud to have been recently featured on the NatureAir blog, which highlighted RTT’s reforestation efforts in Costa Rica and introduced our director, Dr. Herster Barres, to the NatureAir community.

RTT commends NatureAir on its pathbreaking efforts at greening the passenger airline indutry.

RTT Staff Measuring Trees in a Costa Rican Carbon-Offest Forest

The Hotchkiss School is working to offset some of the carbon emissions associated with an upcoming conference, the 2009 Americas Region Round Square Conference.  The conference, which focuses on issues of environmental sustainability, will be held at the school from April 20-25, 2009.  Hotchkiss is raising funds from conference participants to plant a carbon-offset forest to be managed by Reforest the Tropics.  Hotckiss’s initiative is detailed here. 

The Hotchkiss School an independent boarding school located in Lakeville, Connecticut. Founded in 1891, the school has 587 students in grades 9 through 12 and a small number of postgraduates; students at Hotchkiss come from across the United States and 31 foreign countries.  Reforest the Tropics is proud to partner with the Hotchkiss School to help meet its climate change objectives.

The abstract of the article is available here.  It is entitled “Climate Change Mitigation via Afforestation, Reforestation and Deforestation Avoidance: And What About Adaptation to Environmental Change?” The article is coauthored by Christopher Reyer, Martin Guericke and Pierre L. Ibisc of the Faculty of Forest and Environment, University of Applied Sciences Eberswalde, in Germany.

Long before Al Gore went Hollywood, Barres, a retired United Nations forester, was focused on global warming. In 1993, he founded Reforest The Tropics, or RTT, a nonprofit organization striving to demonstrate that the carbon dioxide absorbed by new, tropical forests can offset U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions linked to climate change.

The extensive history behind RTT is one of the organization’s important attributes.  In fact, Dr. Barres began his career as a United Nations forester in Costa Rica in the mid-1960s.

The article continues, describing how interested individuals and organizations can partner with RTT to offset their CO2 emissions:

Under the program, the carbon-offsetting rights to 2½ acres of forest can be had for a one-time donation of $5,000. That covers a $1,500 grant to the farmer, $2,000 for the first four years of forest management and $1,500 that will be set aside for long-term management and insurance. Individuals can get away for less. Barres says grandparents, for example, can offset a grandchild’s carbon emissions for 25 years by sponsoring a forest for $3,000. A Colorado couple, in fact, received a sponsorship as a wedding gift.

As the article suggests, RTT is open to a wide variety of offset ideas.  We have worked successfully with individuals, schools and corporations of various sizes to meet particular emissions targets.  To learn more about our efforts, and to discuss how to get involved, contact us.

The Connecticut Sun play basketball at the Mohegan Sun Arena, which is located at the Mohegan Sun Casino.  The owners of the casino, the Mohegan Tribe, are committed to sustainable growth and environmental consciousness.  Recently, the Mohegan Tribe partnered with Reforest the Tropics to plant a carbon-offset forest in Costa Rica.  The forest offsets carbon dioxide emitted from fuel cells that generate green electricity for the casino.  More information about the Mohegan Tribe’s innovative fuel cells is here [PDF].  More information about the Mohegan Tribe Forest, managed by RTT, is here.

In the picture below, the President of RTT, Dr. Herster Barres, receives the Community MVP award from a Connecticut Sun player.

The correspondent described the carbon offset project between Curtis Packaging and RTT as follows:

Don Droppo Jr. joined the family business about five years ago. Environmentally sensitive, he set a goal to make Curtis Packaging Corp. in Newtown, which produces high-end packaging for luxury products like perfumes, the greenest in the industry.

. . .

One of the organizations [Curtis Packaging] dealt with was Reforest the Tropics, a 10-year-old nonprofit research program based in Mystic. Curtis donated $14,000 to Reforest the Tropics to plant 5 acres of forest in Costa Rica, enough forest to remove from the atmosphere about 50 tons of carbon dioxide a year. Reforest the Tropics does not actually sell offsets, but uses donations to support research into what it hopes will become a model for offset programs in tropical forests.

Without the Curtis investment, that forest would not have been planted. Only when Curtis Packaging came up with the cash did it become economically sensible for a Costa Rican farmer to convert 5 acres of cattle pasture back to forest.

RTT is proud to partner with environmental leaders from a wide variety of industries, including Don Droppo and the team at Curtis Packaging. Stay tuned to this web site for photos and more background on RTT’s carbon offset efforts with Curtis Packaging.

Also, read a related posting on CT Green Scene here.  CT Green Scene is a green-minded web site edited by Heather Burns-DeMelo, a co-organizer of the Fairfield County GreenDrinks and a friend of Reforest the Tropics.

THE RTT ECO CAR: 2 ½ TONNES OF ANNUAL CO2 EMISSIONS, OFFSET IN A FOREST FOR THE LIFETIME OF THE CAR

This Honda Insight is managed by Reforest The Tropics as an example of a totally clean car. With a donation of $500 to RTT, its emissions can be offset in a new forest on a farm in Costa Rica for the lifetime of the car.