Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance

The Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) is a unique partnership of leading international NGOs that was founded in 2003 with a mission to stimulate and promote land management activities that credibly mitigate global climate change, improve the well-being and reduce the poverty of local communities, and conserve biodiversity.

The CCBA "Standards" evaluate land management projects from the early stages of development through implementation. The Standards foster the integration of best-practice and multiple-benefit approaches into project design and implementation.

The CCBA Standards are to:

• Identify projects that simultaneously address climate change, support local communities and smallholders, and conserve biodiversity.
• Promote excellence and innovation in project design and implementation.
• Mitigate risk for investors and offset buyers and increase funding opportunities for project developers.

The CCBA Standards identify land management projects that deliver net positive benefits for climate change mitigation, for local communities, and for biodiversity. The Standards can be applied to any land management project, including projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation or from avoided degradation of other ecosystems, and projects that remove carbon dioxide by sequestering carbon (e.g., reforestation, afforestation, revegetation, forest restoration, agroforestry and sustainable agriculture) or other land management, from design through implementation and monitoring.

The majority of projects from the Alliance are conducted outside of the U.S with most from Africa and Latin America. 

Of the CCBA projects in the U.S., many are focused on forest conservation in Louisiana.  For example, “Restoring a Forest Legacy at Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge,” was also a CCBA standards validation.  This project sponsored by The Conservation Fund's Go Zero program. The Conservation Fund is using donations from its Go Zero program to restore approximately 2,606 acres of bottomland hardwood forest on the refuge in the Lower Mississippi River Valley. The restored forests will be managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure their long-term protection and stewardship.

Phone: (703) 341-2400