We are pleased to announce that Bosques Yungas, our reforestation project in the Yungas ecosystem of Tucumán, Argentina, has officially transitioned to Tree-Nation's Mission Certification, our certification standard designed for ecosystem-based carbon restoration.
What is Mission Certification?
Tree-Nation operates two distinct carbon certification pathways: Foundation and Mission. Both sit within the same rigorous certification framework, but each is tailored to a different type of restoration system.
Mission Certification is built for projects where carbon removal is inseparable from ecosystem recovery. Rather than following a single, standardised planting model, Mission-certified projects restore landscapes through approaches that integrate biodiversity, forest structure, and community engagement, and are evaluated through Tree-Nation's Verification Quality Score (VQS), a framework combining on-site and satellite-based analysis.
Bosques Yungas earned a VQS of 98.0, well above the global average of 78.9 and the South America regional average of 90.0, and a marked improvement over its 2024 score of 88.8. Learn more about our certification standards here.
Why Bosques Yungas
The Yungas forest at Estancia El Nío carries a scar from the past. In the early twentieth century, selective logging removed the tallest native trees from this stretch of subtropical mountain forest, one of Argentina's most biodiverse ecoregions. That loss of "roof trees" disrupted the forest's structure and trophic chain for decades.
Since 2020, Tree-Nation has been supporting this project, and has worked to reverse that history through enrichment planting: introducing native canopy species directly into standing, intact forest rather than replanting cleared land. It's a slower, quieter form of restoration, and one that satellite imagery reflects in an unusual way. Vegetation index (EVI) analysis across the planting sites shows signals that remain virtually unchanged year over year, which is the expected outcome for this model.
The forest was never cleared, so there is no dramatic before-and-after from above. Instead, the evidence lives on the ground: geotagged photos of every planted tree, and annual forest surveys that have recorded a 100% survival rate across all cohorts, with a gradual strengthening of the canopy signal anticipated from year eight to ten onward as the oldest trees mature.
Trees planted in 2018 now average close to five meters in height, and the project has recorded 207 bird and mammal species on site, 13 of them under some category of conservation threat, including the ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), now the subject of a dedicated population study run in partnership with the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán.
The project also layers a second story of restoration beneath the canopy. Native understory species, most notably Solanum betaceum, or chilito, are being introduced into older lots as the upper canopy matures and begins casting the shade this fruit tree needs. It's a deliberate way of working in layers: as the forest rebuilds its structure, it also rebuilds the food resources that sustain frugivorous wildlife, and opens a modest economic opportunity for the community of El Cajón, where chiilto is harvested and sold both fresh and processed.
That community dimension runs through the whole project. Local residents are formally employed in planting, maintenance, monitoring, and seed collection, and 150 students across three local schools have taken part in field visits and science workshops, several of which fed into award-winning student research on the chilito tree itself.
The numbers
To date, Bosques Yungas has planted 2,210 trees across active enrichment sites, with 6 native species forming the backbone of the canopy layer: Cedrela spp., Jacaranda mimosifolia, Handroanthus impetiginosus, Enterolobium contortisiliquum, Tipuana tipu, and Solanum betaceum. The project has certified 566.7 tonnes of CO2 ex-ante offset to date, supported by 148 funding sponsors.
Seed collection remains locally rooted: 675,200 seeds have been harvested from 49 identified seed trees within the project's own forest, preserving the genetic diversity and natural resilience of this specific population.
We look forward to reporting on the continued development of this project, and will continue monitoring Bosques Yungas annually through Tree-Nation's VQS framework, combining remote sensing with the on-site forest surveys and geotagged planting records the project team submits each season.
For more information on Tree-Nation's certification standards, visit our Knowledge Base. To explore the Bosques Yungas project page directly, including geolocated planting data and photo documentation, visit the project page on our platform.
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