The Oceanwide Expeditions Reforestation Initiative
In the modern age, we all leave a carbon footprint in our everyday lives. From daily trips to the store to the way we shop or the products we buy, we impact the environment around us. The same goes for the way we travel and interact with our world. This means we have the potential to make positive change through the choices we make.
With this in mind, we are pursuing effective change in our vessel operations and embracing a broader approach to sustainable choices across our company, from onboard processes and strategies to vessel maintenance, technologies, and how we conduct ourselves in the polar regions.
We have launched a reforestation initiative in the Amazon Rainforest which focuses on the replanting of new trees and the protection and restoration of damaged rainforest. Through this project, we aim to achieve full compensation of all scope 1* emissions relating to our cruises by 2035 through carbon sequestration. In the polar regions, reforestation projects are not possible or appropriate. Instead, by supporting efforts in the Brazilian rainforest, we can have a positive impact on a global scale, including the polar regions.
As part of this project, via both the existing trees on location and projected planted trees, CO2 will be stored. Over time, as the project develops, this will result in an increasing number of trees that absorb CO2. This allows us to have a direct positive impact on the local and global environment. Borders do not limit emissions. Therefore, mitigation in one region has a global effect.
Beginning with our Arctic 2026 season, a percentage of all total trip prices directly supports and contributes to the growth and development of our reforestation project. Choosing to explore the ends of the Earth with Oceanwide Expeditions means contributing towards a more climate-conscious future for polar travel.
Why are we working to restore the Brazilian Amazon rainforest?
While we operate in the world's polar regions, we recognize that our choices and actions can be felt globally. Therefore, we carry out reforestation that can have the highest level of climate benefit via carbon mitigation and the support of several Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, this project can directly influence positive change in a way that is not possible through projects in the Arctic and Antarctica. Through this initiative, impact will be made to the region via direct financing, with local communities and economies benefiting from initiatives and opportunities.
Forests are incredibly important for life on our planet, with more than half of the world's land-based plants and animals and three-quarters of all birds living in and around forests. Tree cover can also influence weather patterns and directly impact local environments by preventing flooding and improving soil quality. This means that local communities suffer from unrestrained deforestation, especially in underserved and low-income communities.
Deforestation is a global issue affecting the local environment, including endangered plant and animal species and local communities, and directly contributing to climate change. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), up to 15 billion trees are cut down every year worldwide, with the majority not being done in a sustainable, managed way. Forest loss and damage are also reported to be the cause of around 10% of global warming.
Perhaps nowhere is the impact of deforestation more evident or discussed than in the Amazon rainforest, around 60% of which can be found in Brazil. According to data provided by Global Forest Watch, from 2001 to 2023, Brazil lost 68.9 Mha of tree cover, equivalent to a 13% decrease in tree cover since 2000, and 37.7 Gt of CO₂e emissions. In 2023 alone, it lost 2.73 Mha of natural forest, equivalent to 1.80 Gt of CO₂ emissions.
On the other hand, forest restoration has a significant potential to mitigate the effects of climate change globally. Restoring only 15% of priority areas globally could avoid 60% of expected extinctions while removing 30% of the current emissions of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere . Hence restoration is a powerful tool to mitigate climate change.
Our Reforestation & Forest Stewardship Initiative
In 2023, Oceanwide Expeditions acquired 1642ha (approximately 4,000 acres) of rainforest in Rio Preto da Eva, a region 60 km east of Manaus. This area of forest has been heavily damaged and degraded by deforestation, forest fires, and illegal operations.
The project began in 2024 with preparing land for the initial planting native trees. As the project develops, seedlings will be grown and managed on-site at a nursery. The aim of this project is to go beyond reducing scope 1 emissions in our operations and obtain total compensation for all our operational carbon emissions.
The first phase of the project aims to restore an area of rainforest roughly equal to 2,800 soccer fields. The project will focus on replanting native trees, including endangered species such as Aniba rosaeodora. This species suffered from widespread deforestation to harvest natural oils used in cosmetics and for the medical industry. Proper management of this extraction process through sustainable means will support local industry, in addition to the production and harvesting of local nuts.
The project also focuses on the preservation and protection of wildlife and flora, with several rare and endangered species being documented within the protected project area that would otherwise have been displaced or destroyed.
We also recognize that our potential impact extends beyond the restoration and management of this area of the Brazilian rainforest. Besides the tree planting activities, the project protects more than 1500 hectares (2,100 soccer fields) of Amazon rainforest, with more forest remnants being protected as we expand project activities. This project will also support several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), focusing on empowering local communities through opportunity and promoting inclusivity in local industry and infrastructure.
- SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth
- SDG 13 – Climate Action
- SDG 15 – Life on land
A second phase is planned to add an additional 5,000 ha of rainforest to the project scope in the coming years - equivalent to over 5,000 soccer fields!
This project is undergoing a feasibility study by ACT Climate Solutions for certification that provides a high certainty of carbon offsetting under the most advanced methodologies. The feasibility study encompasses checking the land, operations, finance and tree planting activities of the project to ensure project climate benefits. ACT develops and provides comprehensive and innovative environmental solutions that empower businesses globally to act on and achieve their environmental goals efficiently and transparently.
Maximizing our impact
As a responsible polar tour operator, we continue to support initiatives that support the polar regions' biodiversity and have taken steps across our operations to minimize our impact on the regions in which we operate. We have adopted the European ETS system, which is obligatory for reporting emissions in the EU.
Through this initiative, we hope to positively impact our planet through our actions and raise awareness of the potential for change we all have through the choices we make in the way we travel and interact with the world around us.
ACT Group will supervise and coordinate partnerships for the project and will ensure that the project complies with the carbon certification standards, provide technical expertise to project activities and lead project certification and monitoring of climate benefits, ensuring that the impact is measurable and transparent. Oceanwide will receive carbon certificates generated by the activities.
* Scope 1 emissions are direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from sources that we own or control directly.
