ArBolivia — Smallholder Reforestation Programme (Bolivia)

ArBolivia is a Plan Vivo-certified community reforestation programme, established in 2007 and registered under Plan Vivo (project ID PV_2011_006) in 2011. It targets smallholder-owned deforested farmland across four Bolivian departments — Cochabamba Tropics, Ichilo (Santa Cruz), Northern La Paz and Western Beni — led by SICIREC Bolivia ltda. in partnership with the agroforestry NGO CETEFOR, with FAO support. It is explicitly distinct from Bolivia's large-scale Noel Kempff Mercado avoided-deforestation project, focusing instead on community-scale reforestation of already-degraded land.

The programme aims to reforest degraded smallholder land with native timber species, generate verified carbon credits, and give participating farmer families additional income from timber, reducing pressure on remaining natural forest.

Farmers are organised into syndicates of 20–60 households under federations that provide governance. Only native species are planted — including mahogany, cedar, almendrillo, tejeyeque and nine others, plus limited naturalised teak — using site-matched plantation design. Carbon is quantified under the CDM AR-AMS0001 small-scale afforestation/reforestation methodology over a 40-year crediting period, based on permanent sample plots established since project inception, with land eligibility verified using classified Landsat 5-TM imagery confirming deforestation at least 10 years before enrolment.

Long-term average net GHG removals range from approximately 200 to 313 tCO2e per hectare depending on species, drawn from permanent sample-plot monitoring. Farmer families also benefit from timber harvests on 13–35-year rotation cycles.

Since 2022, Plan Vivo V5 governs ArBolivia with strengthened community safeguards, under which only independently verified Plan Vivo Certificates (vPVCs) may be retired.