Dimitra Launches the Tambo Amazon Carbon Project in Peru.
A community-based forest carbon initiative in Río Tambo, based on indigenous governance, digital monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV), and long-term climate finance for Asháninka communities.
Developed with the communities of El Cheni and El Poyeni, this project marks Dimitra’s first initiative to reduce carbon emissions in Peru. It is designed to protect forests and reward sustainable land and forest management, ensuring that the benefits the world provides through carbon finance translate into real, long-term value for the communities. The project combines internationally recognized carbon standards, on-the-ground monitoring, and a governance structure centered on the authorities and assemblies of each community.
The project has been shaped through direct collaboration with local leaders. The president of the Native Community of Cheni Nilver Antunez, has helped frame the conversation around land protection, management, and the need for stronger systems to document forest value. In Poyeni, the president of the Native community Helmer Ríos has participated in the debate on participation, governance and the conditions necessary for a carbon project to move forward with legitimacy and long-term community benefit.
“This project is the result of conversations with leaders, managers and the community about what responsible carbon development should look like in the Asháninka territory.” Nilver Antunez, Cheni
Why this Project is Important
The Central Amazon remains one of the most important regions in the global debate on climate and deforestation. It is also a place where the territorial governance of native communities continues to be one of the clearest and most effective forms of forest protection, despite persistent shortcomings in recognition and access to funding.
The Cheni and Poyeni Native Communities are not starting from scratch. They are communities with titled lands, governance structures, and a long history of defending their forests against the pressure of logging, land trafficking, and the expansion of illicit crops.
This project strengthens what is already working. It provides the infrastructure to document forest stewardship with rigor, connect it to recognized carbon methodologies, and create a pathway to climate finance under rules that the communities help define — ensuring transparency, integrity, and durable benefits on the ground.
Territorial and Community Context
This work is grounded in specific territories with defined boundaries, legal titles, and active populations. Two communities anchor the project’s geographic and social foundation in the Tambo River Valley, each bringing distinct scale, history, and institutional engagement to the effort
The Poyeni Native Communities are among the most populated and historically significant in the Tambo River Valley. With approximately 1,666 inhabitants, the community holds legal title over 27,631.04 hectares of land, reflecting both its territorial reach and its long-standing role in the region.
Cheni’s CCNN is home to approximately 300 inhabitants across 70 families, with titled land covering 17,813.33 hectares. The community actively participates in forest conservation initiatives and coordinates with institutions at multiple levels to support those efforts.
Leadership at the Center
This initiative has been developed through direct collaboration with native community leaders, and that leadership remains fundamental to the structure and implementation of the project.
Their participation is not symbolic. Community presidents and assemblies are helping to define the governance model from the outset, including consultation, participation, and the mechanisms through which future benefits are expected to be distributed.
Challenges Facing the Communities
The Asháninka communities of Poyeni and Cheni operate in a region where conservation and sustainable development face direct and persistent threats. Drug trafficking has accelerated deforestation through the expansion of illegal coca crops and processing labs, particularly in the VRAEM region. Illegal logging compounds the problem, with environmental leaders and defenders facing threats and violence for their work in territorial protection.
Beyond security risks, both communities deal with environmental pressures that affect daily life and long-term viability:
- Deforestation and land degradation driven by colonization pressures and illicit activities across the Central Amazon.
- Water contamination and seasonal scarcity, limiting agricultural productivity and food security.
- Lack of technical assistance for sustainable crop production, leaving farmers without the tools to improve yields or meet export standards.
These are not new challenges. Asháninka history is marked by resilience against violence and dispossession, from the rubber boom to the internal armed conflict with Shining Path in the 1980s and 1990s, when the Asháninka were the most affected Amazonian people, with thousands killed, displaced, or held captive. The current threats are different in form but consistent in pattern: external pressure on land, resources, and self-governance.
Economy and Livelihoods
Both communities sustain themselves through a combination of subsistence activities and market-oriented agriculture. Hunting, fishing, and gathering remain central to daily life, but coffee and cacao production represent the primary connection to commercial markets. Cheni in particular focuses on commercial crops such as coffee and cacao, while Poyeni combines productive agriculture with forest monitoring and surveillance projects.
The economic picture, however, is fragile. Both communities face vulnerability to fluctuations in international commodity prices, with limited capacity to negotiate better terms or access premium buyers.
There is also ongoing pressure to engage in extractive activities such as mining or hydrocarbon production, which threaten both subsistence livelihoods and territorial integrity. Cheni has received technical assistance for complementary ventures like fish farming (paco) for food security, and has participated in the MINAM Forest Program for territorial conservation, but these remain isolated efforts rather than a sustained economic infrastructure.
What both communities need is not a single intervention but a connected system: one that links their agricultural output to verifiable data, positions them for better market access, and builds a documented path toward climate finance without replacing local governance.
What is Being Built?
The first phase is already underway and focuses on establishing the technical and governance foundations for long-term implementation. Work has started with the development of a territorial carbon baseline across the combined territories of the Cheni and Poyeni Native Communities, alongside initial technical and financial assessments.
This baseline is being used to support the Project Design Document (PDD), which will formalize the methodology, additionality case, and monitoring system the project will operate under. The PDD is expected to be finalized and made available in April, so stakeholders can review the framework and assumptions transparently.
Dimitra will then deploy MRV digital infrastructure across the entire project area, including forest mapping, satellite monitoring, on-the-ground data collection, and AI-assisted carbon accounting.
Members of the native communities of Cheni and Poyeni will also receive training to participate in data collection and territorial monitoring, so that the operating model remains rooted in local management.
Main Components of the Project
The project is organized around five core components, each addressing a specific requirement in the path from forest baseline to climate finance. Together, they form a structured sequence: define the territory, design the methodology, implement the monitoring infrastructure, build local capacity, and establish how revenue flows back to the communities involved.
- Territorial baseline: Define the forest cover, land use conditions, and project boundaries.
- Project design document: Define the methodology, eligibility requirements, and monitoring criteria.
- Digital implementation of MRV: Provide support for carbon mapping, monitoring, and accounting.
- Community surveillance teams: Develop local implementation and monitoring capacity.
- Profit-sharing structure: Define transparent and community-approved revenue mechanisms.
These components do not operate in isolation. Each one builds on the outputs of the one before it, creating a connected workflow where territorial data informs project design, digital MRV supports ongoing monitoring, local teams ensure field-level accuracy, and profit-sharing ties the entire process back to the communities doing the work.
Phase Roadmap
The project is designed to scale in three phases, each expanding the geographic reach and operational depth of the initiative. This phased approach allows the team to validate processes at a smaller scale before extending them across a wider territory, building institutional trust and technical capacity at each stage.
- Phase 1 — El Cheni + El Poyeni: Phase 1 is already underway and anchored by signed MOUs with both communities. The focus is to operationalize the model end to end: confirm governance and benefit-sharing, complete mapping and baseline work, build the first version of the PDD (Project Design Document), and deploy the initial MRV workflows across both territories. This phase is designed to demonstrate that the project is not just technically sound, but also financially and operationally viable.
- Phase 2–12 communities: Once Phase 1 proves operational and financial viability, the project expands along the Ene–Tambo corridor to include up to 12 additional communities. This phase replicates the Phase 1 model at scale, strengthens community implementation capacity, and deepens MRV deployment. It also prepares the ground for third-party engagement and validation readiness across a broader footprint.
- Phase 3 — Larger territories of Asháninka: With the model validated and operating across multiple communities, Phase 3 extends into the wider Asháninka territories. This is where the project transitions into long-term market participation: sustained MRV operations, credit issuance cycles, commercialization, and durable access to climate finance at scale.
Each phase is intentionally structured to reduce risk early and unlock rapid growth later. Phase 1 builds proof. Phase 2 scales the operating model. Phase 3 delivers full issuance and long-term impact across a much larger territory.
Connected Cacao and the Project
This is where Connected Cacao enters the picture. Connected Cacao is Dimitra’s platform for cacao producers and cooperatives, bringing together crop management, post-harvest traceability, and deforestation compliance into a single system.
For communities like Poyeni and Cheni, where cacao is already a core commercial crop, the platform provides the digital infrastructure to document what is being produced, where, and under what conditions. Geolocation and satellite data support deforestation compliance documentation, while production records across cultivation, harvest, fermentation, and storage create a traceable chain from farm to export.
This data connects directly to the project’s core components. It informs the territorial baseline, supports the project design document, and provides the verifiable outputs required for carbon credit certification and long-term market participation.
Connected Cacao does not replace what the communities already do. It provides the infrastructure to document it, verify it, and connect it to the markets and standards that require that level of evidence.
Long-term Vision
The broader goal is to help establish a large-scale, indigenous-led carbon initiative in the Central Amazon that connects territorial protection with documented climate finance opportunities, while respecting local governance, consent processes, and community-defined priorities.
For Dimitra, this project goes beyond simply launching a carbon initiative in Peru. It’s about building the infrastructure that allows for measuring, verifying, and recognizing Indigenous management within global carbon markets, without separating climate finance from the people and territories that are at the heart of this work.
The carbon credits generated through this project will be measured using a specific methodology and recorded in a recognized registry, such as Verra VCS or Gold Standard. The scope and limitations of the measurement will be published in the registry. This project generates and records carbon credits that represent the documented removal of CO2 from forest conservation activities. It does not guarantee that purchasing credits will make the buyer carbon neutral or net-zero. Verification is carried out by an independent validation and verification body. All projected figures are based on modeled scenarios and do not constitute guaranteed results.
