zeroCARBON Community Agroforestry Programme (Petén, Guatemala)

zeroCARBON is a Plan Vivo-certified agroforestry and reforestation programme run since 2019 by the Guatemalan-founded social enterprise zeroCO2 with farming communities in the Petén department of Guatemala — a region that lost roughly 20% of its forest cover between 2001 and 2020 to cattle ranching and monoculture expansion. Participating families receive fruit, timber and native tree seedlings (including cacao, avocado, cedar and mahogany) along with agroforestry training, converting degraded pasture into productive tree cover.
Published figures for the programme's scale vary noticeably across zeroCO2's own communications: its general 'Resistance through reforestation' materials cite 106 communities, roughly 4,000 families, 1.3 million trees planted and an estimated 683,000 tonnes of CO2 absorbed cumulatively since 2019, while its Plan Vivo project-specific reporting elsewhere lists a narrower scope of around 46 communities and 209 registered participants across nine municipalities. This gap suggests the wider figures describe zeroCO2's total reforestation activity, of which only part is Plan Vivo-registered and carbon-verified; no single, independently reconciled figure for verified tonnes of CO2 or issued Plan Vivo certificates was found in the sources reviewed.
The programme is a genuine, multi-year, third-party-certified community reforestation effort addressing a well-documented deforestation crisis, and is included here as an instructive case: real and Plan Vivo-certified, with reporting precise enough to name tree species and partner NGOs (Comparte ONLUS), yet inconsistent on the core carbon and participation metrics that most determine evidentiary strength.

Read the full analysis: https://zeroco2.eco/en/projects/resistance-through-reforestation-in-guatemala/