ID: 2228
Presenting Author: Daniel Silva-Sierra
Session: 756 - Assessing Integrity: The Role of Impact Assessment in High-Quality Nature-Based Carbon Projects
Status: pending
Colombian NbS aligning with IFC PS1/PS6: ESMS, cumulative impacts, critical habitat screening, seasonal biodiversity monitoring, and safeguards for additionality, permanence, transparency.
Nature-based carbon projects only build trust when impact assessment is central to design and implementation. This case from Colombia’s Orinoquía presents a large-scale restoration/afforestation initiative moving from diagnosis to alignment with IFC PS1 and PS6 to align people, habitats, and carbon integrity. Under PS1, we defined an area of influence including cumulative impacts, assessed project climate vulnerability and supply chain (PS2, PS6), and established an Environmental and Social Management System (ESMS) that links field procedures to risk/impact registers and management plans: biosecurity and invasive-species control, water quality/use, soil microorganisms, flora/fauna monitoring, stakeholder engagement & grievance mechanism. This process is documented through community dialogues, monitoring and follow-up, and coordinated emergency plans. Under PS6, we ran seasonally stratified field campaigns (dry/wet), complemented with eDNA and species distribution modeling; classified modified and natural habitats; evaluated critical habitat attributes; and mapped sensitivities within the area of influence and in recognized areas such as the Río Bita (Ramsar site). This strengthened the mitigation hierarchy, applied a precautionary approach to biodiversity, and oriented controls for invasive species. The result is a project architecture where impact assessment reorients design, community relations, and biodiversity outcomes, and complements carbon accounting with safeguards for additionality, permanence, and transparency—consistent with progress toward PS1–PS6 alignment.
Daniel is the Knowledge Strategy Lead at Ingeobosque; he is passionate about biodiversity and finance.
Coauthor 1: Victor Giraldo
Coauthor 2: Alvaro Trujillo
Coauthor 3: Ana M. Jimenez
Coauthor 4: Laura Florez