The Acapa – Bajo Mira y Frontera Forest Conservation Project is a Verified Carbon Standard certified project. Providing alternative livelihoods to community members is a core project activity, which aims to address the root cause of deforestation and forest degradation which is economic. This project will provide value chain infrastructure, technical training, and access to financial capital to support the sustainable extraction of non-timber forest products such as açai. Agricultural products on already converted lands such as cocoa, will be further developed and commercialized. The development of value chains provides income to farming families as well as community councils. It is assumed that people will shift towards these alternative livelihoods, which have a significantly greater return, than their current livelihoods, which rely on timber extraction. Since the project’s inception, local communities have actively participated. Community support has culminated in the project creation of Community Councils with legal representatives as well as a wide-reaching General Assembly which votes for representatives to ensure community governance.