The planting of fruit trees and indigenous tree species is well under way towards establishing 177 hectares of agroforestry and reforestation parcels within Integrated Social Forestry (ISF) farms. These are managed by local community members who voluntarily offered their areas for the carbon sequestration project for the next 23 years from project startup in 2007. The project has already planted 41 hectares of ISF farms with various fruit trees such as lanzones, rambutan and citrus sp., and indigenous tree species such as molave, kalantas, narra, and balakat gubat, among others, in Maddela, Quirino.
The project is expected to sequester 31,771 tCO2 over its entire project duration, provide direct benefits to 96 participating households and help restore biodiversity and improve ecosystem services that the local communities can enjoy.
Along with the Philippine Peñablanca Sustainable Reforestation Project, the Quirino Forest Carbon Project passed the Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standards garnering Gold Level ratings—the first projects in the Philippines to gain such recognition. CCB Standards is the most widely used and globally respected international standard for evaluating forest-based projects. These standards help ensure that projects provide multiple benefits expected from them such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity conservation and community well-being.