News Release: ERA and Wildlife Works launch Joint Venture to complete Mai Ndombe, DRC’s first REDD project

March 12, 2012, Vancouver, British Columbia: ERA Carbon Offsets Ltd. (TSX­-V: ESR) (“ERA”) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Joint Venture Agreement with Wildlife Works (“WW”) to complete the 299,645 hectare Mai Ndombe REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the “DRC”) which was announced in ERA’s August 5, 2011 News Release.

 

• The Joint Venture between ERA and WW will see both companies cooperate on project finance, technical development, implementation, and eventual carbon sales from offsets developed within the project area.
• Current modelling estimates that the project will develop significant volumes of carbon offsets in the range of 1.5 to 3.0 million tonnes per year beginning in 2012.
• Through the development and monetization of high quality carbon offsets, the Mai Ndombe project will deliver ecosystem, social, economic, biodiversity and climatic benefits for communities within and beyond the project area.
• The project will be developed to the Verified Carbon Standard and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance Standards to recognize the high social and ecological value of the project.
• Full project development is now under way within the concession area including construction of schools which will serve the families of the local communities.
• This is the first joint venture undertaken by either company on a REDD project.

 

Duncan Manson, CEO of ERA comments: “We are delighted to announce this 50/50 joint venture with Wildlife Works, a world leader in the development of REDD projects. Mike Korchinsky and his team at WW have an impressive 15 year conservation history which includes their successful REDD project in Kenya whereby more than 200,000 ha of the Kasigau Corridor has been protected from agricultural encroachment and forest degradation. Their experience and success is a testament to their technical sophistication, as well as their ability to deliver real and lasting benefits to the community. When combined with ERA’s expertise in carbon finance, forest conservation and ecosystem restoration, we now have a pre-eminent international team able to complete the Mai Ndombe project and ensure that it delivers the economic, social and climate benefits desired over the next 25 years. This Joint Venture Agreement ensures that the financing and expertise needed to complete the project is now in place.”

 

Mike Korchinsky, Founder and CEO of Wildlife Works comments: “We are excited to be able to partner with ERA in this important REDD project within the DRC whereby 299,645 hectares of the vulnerable Congo Basin Rainforest will be protected from deforestation. The Mai Ndombe project will deliver important social, economic, biodiversity and climatic benefits for communities within and beyond the project area. ERA is a recognized leader in the development of forestry-based carbon offsets for the voluntary market using carbon finance as a means of mitigating the undesirable effects of climate change. Wildlife Works is delighted to join ERA in implementing this project and looks forward to a long and successful working relationship with ERA”.

 

About ERA Carbon Offsets Ltd.

A pioneer in carbon offset projects based on forest conservation and restoration, ERA has delivered over two million tonnes of carbon offsets to the voluntary market from a variety of international forestry based projects. The company’s Community Ecosystem Restoration Program (“CERP”) began in 2005 in British Columbia, Canada, and has delivered large scale restoration of riparian ecosystems throughout the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. ERA’s successful project development activities include the award winning Darkwoods and Denman Island forest carbon projects, the first REDD concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa and Improved Forest Management projects in the United States which are expected to deliver ARB compliant tonnes for the California market beginning in 2013. Our activities span Canada, Africa, the United States and New Zealand. ERA’s carbon offset projects are validated and verified to ISO-14064, CCBA, PFSI-VER, CAR and VCS standards and sell into voluntary and pre-compliance carbon markets. ERA’s clients and product users include Air Canada, Catalyst Paper, Rolling Stone Magazine, HSE – Entega, Forest Carbon Group AG, and Shell Canada Limited. 

 

Additional information about ERA can be found on the corporate website or by contacting inves...@eracarbonoffsets.com

 

About Wildlife Works LLC

Wildlife Works is the world’s leading REDD project development and management company with a unique approach to applying innovative market based solutions to the conservation of biodiversity. The company established a successful model that uses the emerging marketplace for REDD carbon offsets as a sustainable and scalable funding mechanism for biodiverse forest protection and to help local landowners in the developing world to monetize their forest and biodiversity assets whether they are indigenous peoples, governments, communities, ownership groups or private individuals.

Wildlife Works’ flagship “Kasigau Corridor REDD project” was the first REDD project to achieve validation, verification, and issuance of REDD carbon credits under both the Verified Carbon Standard, (VCS), and the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity Standard (CCB). 

 

Additional information about Wildlife Works can be found on the corporate website www.wildlifeworks.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors,
ERA CARBON OFFSETS LTD.

“Duncan J. Manson”
Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

David Rokoss
ERA Carbon Offsets Ltd.
110 – 788 Harbourside Drive
North Vancouver, BC V7P 3R7
Telephone: 604-973-6512
Email: david.rok...@eraecosystems.com

 

Additional information on ERA can be found on the corporate website www.eracarbonoffsets.com or by contacting inves...@eracarbonoffsets.com

 

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This document includes forward-looking statements as well as historical information. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the continued advancement of the company’s general business development, research development and the company’s development of forest-based carbon offsets. When used in this document, the words “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intent”, “may”, “project”, “plan”, “should” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements. Although ERA Carbon Offsets Ltd. believes that their expectations reflected in these forward looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include fluctuations in the marketplace for the sale of carbon credits, the inability to implement corporate strategies, the ability to obtain financing and other risks disclosed in our filings made with Canadian Securities Regulators.

 

NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.