Sierra Gorda, Querétaro / Krefeld, Germany — June 2026
Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, I.A.P. (GESG) presents Carbono Biodiverso, a local carbon offset and conservation model designed to align corporate sustainability efforts with forest protection, biodiversity conservation, and regional socioeconomic development in Mexico.
Created by GESG, the Local Protocol for Subnational Actions for the Regeneration of Forests offers a locally grounded alternative for companies seeking to offset emissions because of the local tax while supporting landowners who protect and regenerate forests in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve. The model is based on a simple principle: forests store carbon, protect water, sustain biodiversity, and support life — but they need to create real economic value for the people who steward them.
OpenForests has supported Carbono Biodiverso as a technology partner, developing the digital registry system that helps manage land registration, carbon inventory, transactions and payouts to the participating landowners. The registry belongs to and is led by GESG as part of the Carbono Biodiverso model.
“Designed for and respectful of landowners’ specific situations, this viable local protocol ensures payments for carbon footprint reduction go directly to the beneficiaries, not project developers. This establishes a virtuous cycle, with remaining funds reinvested in other community-benefiting initiatives,” said Martha “Pati” Ruiz-Corzo, Executive Director of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda.
A local carbon protocol built for people and nature
Carbono Biodiverso was created by Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda to support forest conservation, natural regeneration, fair landowner compensation, and biodiversity recovery in Querétaro, Mexico. The protocol reflects decades of conservation work in the Sierra Gorda and was developed in alliance with the Secretariat of Sustainable Development of the State of Querétaro, SEDESU.
Unlike carbon models that primarily serve large-scale landowners or distant markets, Carbono Biodiverso is designed to include small and medium-sized landowners. This gives rural landowners and communities a pathway to participate in the formal carbon economy while protecting forest ecosystems.
The model rewards landowners for removing pressure from forests and allowing natural regeneration to take place. Participating landowners must stop activities that harm forest health, such as cattle grazing, logging, the use of fire or provoking wildland fires (98% of wildland fires are provoked in Mexico), while supporting actions such as fire combat and prevention, maintaining fences, surveillance, no-poaching, and ecological recovery monitoring.
Why Carbono Biodiverso matters
Carbon markets have often been criticized for being difficult to understand and hard to verify. Buyers may not know where credits come from, who receives the money, or whether the environmental benefit is properly monitored.
Carbono Biodiverso responds to this challenge by connecting carbon compensation with specific properties, local landowners, field monitoring, satellite monitoring, and government-recognized oversight. The registry is designed to make every tonne of carbon captured more traceable and accountable.
The model is also rooted in the reality of the Sierra Gorda. In all of Mexico or Latin America, forest degradation is linked to the lack of meaningful economic returns for private landowners, ejidos, and communities. When forests do not provide income, landowners may turn to agriculture, cattle-ranching, timber extraction, or land-use change. Carbono Biodiverso offers another path: economic development through environmental care and a far bigger income than traditional activities
Learn more about Carbono Biodiverso >
How the Carbono Biodiverso Registry works
The Carbono Biodiverso Registry is the digital foundation that supports the protocol’s transparency, accountability, and operational management.
The registry helps Carbono Biodiverso manage the full process:
1. Land registration
When a landowner expresses interest, GESG assesses the land on-site to determine whether it meets the protocol’s eligibility criteria.
2. Carbon inventory
Field teams establish monitoring sites and assess biomass, vegetation type, tree species, and other ecological factors used to calculate carbon removal.
3. Land coding
Each property receives a unique code and an official annual carbon removal figure based on forest type and carbon removal factors.
4. Inventory blocks
Carbon inventories are periodically created from registered properties, generating verified blocks that can be used in transactions.
5. Flexible block grouping
Carbono Biodiverso can combine carbon inventories from multiple properties into transactions of different sizes, making the model more inclusive for small and medium landholders.
6. Company transactions
Companies can purchase verified carbon removal units to compensate emissions while supporting local conservation and regeneration in the Sierra Gorda.
OpenForests’ role as technology partner
OpenForests developed the digital infrastructure that supports the Carbono Biodiverso Registry.
This includes the system for land registration, carbon inventory, transaction management and synchronized payments. The platform helps make the protocol easier to operate, audit, and communicate over time.
However, technology is only one part of the system. Carbono Biodiverso also depends on regular field visits, local expertise, and on-site monitoring to check for threats such as grazing, tree harvesting, fire use, pests, disease, or harm to wildlife.
A carbon model backed by local institutions
Carbono Biodiverso is the result of collaboration between Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda and SEDESU, the Secretariat of Sustainable Development of Querétaro. This collaboration led to the Sello Querétaro, a local carbon tax system that allows companies in Querétaro to compensate emissions through local carbon projects in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve.
This local grounding is important. It connects companies operating in the region with conservation outcomes in the same region, creating a more direct relationship between emissions compensation, forest protection, biodiversity recovery, and community benefit.
Direct benefit for landowners and biodiversity
Carbono Biodiverso is built around the participation of landowners.
By compensating landowners for protecting forests and allowing natural regeneration, the protocol creates an alternative to extractive land uses. It supports rural income while helping conserve forests that store carbon, absorb water, and provide habitat for biodiversity.
The Carbono Biodiverso programme reports 48,746 hectares of total project surface area, 438,242 tCO₂e, participation from 162 landowners and 10 communal lands between 2020 and 2024, six protected ecosystems, and Mexico´s six feline species protected in the Sierra Gorda.
A replicable model for transparent carbon markets
Carbono Biodiverso was created as a model that civil society organizations and state governments can adopt and adapt in their own regions. GESG offers support and workshops for implementation, while region-specific software packages are available in consultation with OpenForests.
The model shows how carbon compensation can be more transparent, more local, and more connected to the people caring for the land.
About Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda
Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda, I.A.P. is a civil society organization created by local citizens in response to the rapid environmental deterioration of the Sierra Gorda. For nearly four decades, GESG has worked to strengthen community well-being, regenerate ecosystems, rebuild soils, build a circular conservation economy, mitigate climate change, and implement a community-friendly protocol for forest owners.
About Carbono Biodiverso
Carbono Biodiverso is a local carbon offset and conservation model created by Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda. It aligns corporate sustainability efforts with forest protection, biodiversity conservation, landowner participation, and regional socioeconomic development in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve.
About OpenForests
OpenForests is the technology partner supporting the Carbono Biodiverso Registry. The company develops digital infrastructure for nature-based solutions, including systems for land registration, monitoring, public transparency, impact communication, and satellite-supported landscape oversight.
Press contact
Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda / Carbono Biodiverso
Laura P. Burke Pérez-Arce
President
laura(at)sierragorda.net
https://sierragorda.net/en/home/
https://carbonobiodiverso.net/en
OpenForests
Léa Smadja
Chief Marketing Officer
lea.smadja(at)openforests.com
www.openforests.com
