PRICELESS PLANET COALITION
Restoring 100 million trees around the world
Priceless Planet Coalition is a global initiative founded by Mastercard to unite a network of partners to restore 100 million trees in places with the greatest potential for positive impacts on climate, communities and biodiversity.
The Priceless Planet Coalition is currently working in 19 sites around the world in places critical for nature and people. The coalition is guided by Conservation International and World Resources Institute, which employ science-based best practices for the selection, implementation and long-term monitoring of our restoration efforts.
Maximum impact
Restoring carbon-rich ecosystems like forests is a scientifically proven method to address the climate crisis and our projects are executed in areas where they have maximum impact. Our projects are also designed to benefit the local communities who simultaneously contributed the least to the climate crisis but are among the most vulnerable to the ravaging effects.
Our Priceless Planet Coalition aims to restore 100 million trees in the places with the greatest potential for community, climate, and biodiversity benefits. The Sierra Nevada of Colombia is home to one of 18 projects across six continents. Learn more about the coalition at: https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/vision/corp-responsibility/priceless-planet.html
On the ground
Here are some examples of the dozens of projects we have deployed around the world.
COLOMBIA (Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta)
This region of northern Colombia holds examples of every biome in the country and well as many endemic species found nowhere else on Earth. In a joint effort with Indigenous communities, Conservation International will restore 1,000 hectares strongly degraded by encroachment and livestock farming — a remnant of its colonial history. This will improve the region's adaptation and resilience to climate change. Critical ecosystems will be restored by connecting remnant forests with locally cultivated Indigenous tree saplings, to the benefit of a variety of endemic plants and animals.
The project also aims to reduce the loss of tree species, ecosystem functional types and landscape hectares.
- Goal: Restore 700,000 trees
- Carbon capture potential: 14,000 metric tonnes of CO2
PHILIPPINES (Puerto Princesa)
As part of the global effort to scale up restoration to fight climate change, Conservation International is leveraging on its innovations in restoration science, community engagement, and forest stewardship in Palawan to provide economic benefits to local people and Indigenous communities.
This project lies within a critical habitat and protected area, including the watershed areas that provides water and other ecosystems services to the local community, and tourism services to visitors of the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park.
- Goal: restore 417,500
- Carbon capture potential: 8,350 metric tonnes of CO2
BRAZIL (Amazon and Atlantic Forest)
In addition to being an immense storehouse of climate-warming carbon, the Amazon and the Atlantic forests in Brazil hold some of the greatest biodiversity and freshwater reserves on Earth. The Amazon has already lost almost 20% of its original forest cover. The Atlantic forest, a biodiversity hotspot, has lost more than 80% of its cover since European colonization.
Forest restoration efforts will engage and directly benefit local communities and promote a local sustainable economy. Various methods will be utilized to adapt to the differing realities of this diverse region to sequester carbon, protect biodiversity and ensure benefits to local communities.
- Goal: Reforest 2 million trees
- Potential impact: 40,000 metric tonnes of CO2
MADAGASCAR (Lake Alaotra)
As the largest lake in Madagascar, Lake Alaotra is a critical watershed for providing resources to the island’s main rice-growing region and contributing to the production of freshwater fish. This flagship landscape neighbors Lake Alaotra and is contiguous to the Zahamena and Corridor Ankeniheny-Zahamena protected areas. There is no restoration program in Madagascar at this scale that combines diverse cost-effective restoration strategies backed by local knowledge and science.
Led by our partnership with local stakeholders the flagship will contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation, benefit the local economy and biodiversity.
- Goal: restore 6,000,000 trees
- Carbon capture potential: 120,000 metric tonnes of CO2
Estimated carbon sequestration is 20 kg of CO2e per tree accumulated over five years, based on low estimates of dry and humid tropical growth rates from global restoration databases. Actual carbon impact of each Priceless Planet Coalition restoration project will be assessed after five years based on data collected throughout the monitoring process.
Learn More
Learn more about the coalition's projects and partners on the Priceless Planet Coalition's website.