Good practice

Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project (Bolivia)

Bolivia · San Ignacio de Velasco · See the Bolivia profile

Since 1997, TNC and partners paid Bolivia to retire logging rights on ~600,000 ha of Amazon/Cerrado forest bordering Noel Kempff Mercado National Park—projected to avoid 6–8 Mt CO2e over 30 years and a global template for voluntary forest carbon.

~600,000 ha

Forest area under retired logging rights

6–8M tCO2e over 30 yr

Projected avoided emissions

Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project (Bolivia)

Details

Promoter: The Nature Conservancy (TNC) / Fundación Amigos de la Naturaleza (FAN)
Period: 1997-present
Keywords: Amazon forest, carbon, REDD+, biodiversity, protected area

Context

Beginning in 1997, The Nature Conservancy and partners paid Bolivia to retire logging rights on about 600,000 ha of Amazon and Cerrado forest bordering Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, an early template for voluntary forest carbon.

Implementation

Implementation detail (cost, timeline, staffing, conditions for success) is not yet available for this practice.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-06-21
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) / Fundación Amigos de la Naturaleza (FAN) — accessed 2026-06-21
The Nature Conservancy – Noel Kempff Mercado National Park — accessed 2026-06-21
Ecosystem Marketplace – NKMCAP profile — accessed 2026-06-21
CBD – Noel Kempff project description — accessed 2026-06-21

Attachments

Quality score: 80/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported

Top 2% in this catalogue (335 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Carbon — sequestration / storage, evidenced3/3

Independently projected to avoid 6–8 Mt CO2e over 30 years from retiring logging concessions on 600,000 ha; $10M corporate investment and CCX verification confirm market credibility of the emission reductions.

Biodiversity — conservation / improvement, evidenced3/3

Protects a globally rare Amazon/Cerrado ecotone in a UNESCO World Heritage area; confirmed habitat for jaguars, giant otters, tapirs, maned wolves and ~4,000 plant species.

Water & soil — retention, infiltration, erosion control2/3

Project protects upper Iténez/Guaporé river headwaters; watershed benefit cited by TNC but no quantified water-flow or soil-erosion metrics published for the project.

Fire resilience — risk reduction, evidenced1/3

Humid lowland Amazon/Cerrado forest is not a primary wildfire risk zone; fire management is not a stated project objective and no fire-reduction outcomes are reported.

Governance, certification & transferability3/3

Logging concessions formally retired via $10M CCX-registered transaction; Bolivian state retains land title; FAN provides ongoing operational management since 1997 under a 30-year project agreement.

Cite this

Evidoria. Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project (Bolivia). Persistent ID: 0547a9b4-8ffb-4bcc-a249-e6049fd2dc19.

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