New York City, July 18, 2017: Wildlife Works announced today the launch of Everland LLC, a specialized marketing company representing an established group of high-impact forest conservation projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America that have successfully stopped deforestation by applying REDD+, a performance-based mechanism, to conserve highly threatened forests.
REDD+ is an acronym for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, a UN Climate Change mitigation strategy. It protects forests that would otherwise be destroyed and thereby avoid the release of CO2 emissions that harm the environment.
The destruction of forests is the second largest source of CO2 emissions. They account for over 7B tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. That’s more than the entire global transportation sector. Everland anticipates that its collective portfolio of forest conservation projects will significantly contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Moreover, through the protection of 3.5M hectares of the most important and vulnerable forests in the world.
The projects
The company will market REDD+ projects that reduce 25M tonnes of CO2 emissions annually, create more than 2,000 jobs and bring millions of dollars and significant benefits to over a million local community members. In addition, the projects protect habitats of many endangered species including elephants, lions, cheetahs, tigers, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos.
“REDD+ is the fastest, most cost effective initiative that can be done right now to combat climate change”, said Mike Korchinsky, founder and president of Wildlife Works. “Through Everland we will establish a formidable marketing team located in key markets across the globe to provide Wildlife Works and other REDD+ project developers like us with access to a wide range of market channels and sales contracts.” said Korchinsky.
Revenues from sales make it possible for REDD+ projects to finance conservation work on the ground. That’s where local landowners and communities are adequately receive a reward for avoiding deforestation now and in the long term.
Everland contributions
Gerald Prolman, who led Wildlife Works’ business development team for the past nine years, has been named president of Everland. The company headquarters is in New York City. Pamela Brazier is Wildlife Works’ head of business development for Europe. She lives in London and is now Everland’s Vice President of Business Development for Europe.
“We are ready to get to work to bring greatly needed capital to real climate heroes who have taken extreme measures to protect forests,” said Gerald Prolman, President of Everland.
Everland will make it easy for businesses to support REDD+ projects. That’s by providing them with project due diligence, impact reporting, engaging content, and digital tools. All to efficiently integrate sustainability into their business models.
“Through successful sales, we have the potential to create local, sustainable economies that will serve forest communities well beyond carbon markets,” said Prolman.
Sources: Everland, Wildlife Works, REDD+
