Chocó Department, Colombia

Overview

Description of Jurisdiction

The Chocó Department is an administrative region that is the first administrative level below the National Level in Colombia. Chocó is mainly located in the Pacific Coast biome of Colombia, and it also include some land in the Urabá Gulf on the Atlantic Coast. Chocó Department is grouped into five subregions: 1) Alto Atrato, foothills of the Western Cordillera of Colombia to the west of the Chocó department; 2) Medio Atrato, alluvial plains of the Atrato River in the central zone of the department; 3) Bajo Atrato, alluvial plains and estuarine zones of the Atlantic Ocean to the North of the department; 4) Pacific Coast, alluvial plains with estuarine zones of the Pacific Ocean to the southwest of the department; and 5) San Juan, alluvial plains and low hills in the San Juan River basin to the southeast of the department. Chocó Department is characterized by high rainfall, with annual values of up to 9,000 mm, an average annual temperature of 26 °C, and a relative humidity of 80%. The department has forests of high richness, diversity, and variety of endemism (Poveda et al. , 2004).

Natural resources management over the Jurisdictional Area is assigned to the Autonomous Regional Corporation for Sustainable Development of Chocó (CODECHOCO), which, under Article 23 of Law 99 of 1993, enjoys administrative and financial autonomy, as well as its own assets and legal personality, and is tasked with safeguarding, preserving, restoring, and sustainably managing natural resources and the environment within its respective jurisdiction.

Location and Geographic Boundaries

The Chocó Colombia JNR FREL Area covers the Chocó Department, which is one of Colombia’s 32 Departments and is located in the Pacific Biome. Chocó is situated on the northwestern frontier of the country at coordinates 5°58’05.1”N 76°55’39.4”W, the department comprises 30 municipalities primarily inhabited by Afro-Colombians, with smaller populations of indigenous and mestizo communities.

As indicated in Map 1, Chocó shares its boundaries to the North with the Republic of Panama, the Pacific Ocean, and the Caribbean Sea; to the East with the departments of Antioquia, Risaralda, and Valle del Cauca; to the South with the Valle de Cauca Department; and to the West with the Pacific Ocean. The total JNR Area is 4,947,039 hectares of which 4,552,525 hectares is forest (as of 2021) and has a maritime extension of 1,382 kilometers, which constitutes 57% of Colombia’s Pacific Ocean coastline. The JNR FREL Area also includes a small portion of the adjacent Department of Antioquia. This inclusion is due to the presence of the Consejo Comunitario Mayor de la Asociación Campesina Integral del Atrato (COCOMACIA) which is the owner of one of the largest Afrocolombian land holdings and is the first nested project under the Choco JNR FREL, COCOMACIA Community REDD+ Program (Verra ID 2071).

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Jurisdictional Baseline Validity Period and GHG Emissions

The Chocó FREL Baseline Start Date is January 1, 2021, and will be updated every 6 years following of the JNR Scenario Requirements. The selection of the start date was based on the pixel weighted date of the last image of the historical reference period, which is December 23, 2020, and set to the beginning of 2021 for convenience of use for vintage recognition.

The temporal boundaries of the Jurisdictional Baseline are the following:

Historical reference period: 2015-2021
Frequency of baseline update: 6 years
FREL 1^st validity period January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2026.

	UDef	UDeg
Emisiones totales (línea de base FREL de 6 años)	34,404,165 tCO₂e	24,153,024 tCO₂e
Emisiones medias anuales	5,734,028 tCO₂e/año	4,025,504 tCO₂e/año

UNFCCC REDD+ Activities Included

For this Jurisdictional Baseline the activity in the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use sector (AFOLU) of the UNFCCC included is reducing emissions from unplanned deforestation and degradation of native forests (REDD+), which aligns with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) category of conversion of forest to non-forest land. The scope of activities in the Jurisdictional FREL being validated under this Baseline Description accounts for emissions from unplanned deforestation (UDef) and unplanned forest degradation (UDeg).

Currently Nested Projects

COCOMACIA COMMUNITY REDD+ PROGRAM, CHOCO/ANTIOQUIA COLOMBIA (ID 2071) will be the first project area to apply the Choco FREL.

The land tenure systems in the JNR Area include Protected Public Areas, Indigenous Communities (Resguardos Indígenas) and Black Communities (Afro-Colombian) which account for 80% of all land in the Chocó Department.

The Consejo Comunitario Mayor de la Asociación Campesina Integral del Atrato (COCOMACIA) is the largest Afro-Colombian tenure holder in Colombia and was founded in 1982. COCOMACIA has ownership rights over 695,245 hectares of land in the Middle Atrato, as established by Resolution 04566 dated December 29, 1997, issued by INCORA, now known as INCODER, according to Law 70 of 1993.

Location and Geographic Boundaries

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⬇ Download Cocomacia (.kml)

Jurisdictional Baseline Validity Period and GHG Emissions

The temporal boundaries of the Jurisdictional Baseline are the following:

Historical reference period: 2015-2021
Frequency of baseline update: 6 years
FREL 1^st validity period January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2026.

	UDef	UDeg
Emisiones totales (línea de base FREL de 6 años)	34,404,165 tCO₂e	24,153,024 tCO₂e
Emisiones medias anuales	5,734,028 tCO₂e/año	4,025,504 tCO₂e/año

UNFCCC REDD+ Activities Included

Currently Nested Projects

COCOMACIA COMMUNITY REDD+ PROGRAM, CHOCO/ANTIOQUIA COLOMBIA (ID 2071) will be the first project area to apply the Choco FREL.

Jurisdictional Proponents

There are three entities that through their existing legal agreements have “overall control and responsibility” for the JNR FREL. Below is a summary of how each Proponent has control and/or responsibility.

CODECHOCO

CODECHOCO, a legally authorized government agency to oversee natural resources in the department of Choco, provides all oversight for the activities related to natural resources, will administrator the FREL allocation to projects seeking nest under the Choco JNR FREL and supports stakeholder holder engagement on the FREL within the department. It has and will continue to accompany and promote all the meetings to disseminate information on the Jurisdictional FREL in the Department of Chocó.

COCOMACIA

COCOMACIA is responsible for coordinating and supporting the collection the field data used to calculate the carbon stocks across the department, with support for Terra Global. In addition, through its directors and community leaders, it is responsible for disseminating information related to the development of the Choco JNR FREL in the COCOMACIA project area and with other stakeholders in the Department of Chocó. They have, through a private sector investment managed by Terra Global Investment Management, LLC, financed all the work required to complete the Chocó FREL and will be the first nested project under the FREL.

Terra Global Capital, LLC

Terra Global is responsible for the technical development of the Jurisdictional FREL and supporting the validation as defined in the Market Standard. This includes providing CODECHOCO with the training and support to manage the spatial allocation of the FREL to the Project Areas. As specified in the triparty FREL Collaboration Agreement, this incudes carbon quantification analysis, historical land use change analysis and being responsible for the management of the validation by the VVB as required for the initial Choco JNR FREL Validity Period and all periods in which the Choco JNR FREL must be reassessed. Terra Global is also responsible for providing a FREL allocation software tool to calculate baseline emissions for the Project Areas and across the JNR Area.