In February 2024, it was reported that the Swiss-based company ASC Impact had identified 25,000 ha in the province of Huíla, Angola for eucalyptus plantations and the production of agricultural crops. ASC Impact has also acquired concessions for tree plantation projects in Ethiopia and the Republic of the Congo. The company, owned by Austria's Kirchmayer family, was previously focused on acquiring farmland in Eastern Europe. In Africa, it is partnering with EcoNetix, a company founded by an Austrian businessman who claims to be a "Senior Advisor to H.E. The President of Uganda" and which describes itself as "Africa's billion dollar carbon credit portfolio", and with Dubai-based businessman Sulaiman Al Fahim, who has close ties with the Abu Dhabi royal family. The companies, through a joint initiative called Sustain Now, say they will market 60 million tons of carbon credits by 2030 to UAE buyers and claim to have mangrove and tree plantation projects in the "pipeline" covering over 800,000 ha in Guinea Bissau, Papa New Guinea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Côte d'Ivoire. In Angola, their project is called the "Green West-African Afforestation Project".
In 2023, the Japanese trading conglomerate Marubeni announced plans for 31,000 ha tree plantation project in southern Angola that will be part of a carbon offsetting project. The plantations will be established through a partnership with the Angolan company ALCAAL, and will be situated on lands for which ALCAAL has a concession. ALCAAL was registered in 2016 and is owned by the family of Argentinian businessman Jorge do Amaral. It claims to have 70,000 ha of farmland in Angola and Argentina for the cultivation of soybean, maize and rice as well as a 35,000 ha forestry concession in Angola for pine and eucalyptus that is "aimed at producing biomass and generating carbon credits".
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https://alcaal.com/
Afforestation project with native and exotic species on degraded grasslands in Northeast, Argentina.
Argentina
Vista Energy
Mexico
Pine trees
2,300
Vista Energy is a Mexican and Argentinian oil and gas company. In this project, it will plant pine trees on multiple farms of cattle grazing lands covering an initial 2,300 ha that it acquired in Corrientes Province, Argentina. The carbon consultant for the project is Argentina-based ProSustentia.
Mixed afforestation with native and non-native species in Argentina-I
Argentina
Grupo Insud
Argentina
Eucalyptus and pine trees
1,000
This project aims to plant eucalyptus and pine on 1,000 ha in two ranches owned by Garruchos S.A and managed by Cambium Earth in the province of Corrientes, Argentina. Garruchos is a subsidiary of Pomera Maderas, a forestry-industrial company that is part of the Argentinian Grupo Insud - a business conglomerate owned by billionaire couple Hugo Sigman and Silvia Gold. Pomera Maderas owns 23,000 ha of timber plantations in the provinces of Corrientes and Misiones, as well as plantations in Paraguay. For this project it says that the timber will not be harvested. Cambium Earth is a carbon offset company based in Madrid that is also connected to the Sigman Gold family. Grupo Insud is a founder and shareholder of the Argentine genetic engineering company Bioceres and is itself involved in genetic engineering.
Unitán afforestation and reforestation of grazing lands project
Argentina
Unitán S.A.I.C.A
Uruguay
Eucalyptus and quebracho trees
2,350
This project intends to plant eucalyptus and quebracho trees used in tannin production on 5 properties totalling 2,350 ha owned or leased by Unitán S.A.I.C.A in the Chaco and Formosa regions of Argentina. The proponent, Unitán, is one of the two primary Argentinian tannin manufacturers. It claims that "although there are confirmed existence of indigenous communities" in the area "these communities have no productive or sacred link with the properties that have been included in the project." It conducted an online "stakeholder consultation" with forty participants. Unitán is accused of contaminating water, mishandling work-related accidents, and overlooking labour rights. Protesting workers, peasant and Indigenous communities have suffered severe police repression. Unitán is also accused of decades of large-scale deforestation and land grabbing to plant tannin-producing quebracho trees in the Chaco and Formosa states. Unitán has recently established a biomass electricity generating plant that will be supplied by its eucalyptus and quebrecho plantations.
CREATING LIVELIHOOD OPPORTUNITIES AND CARBON CREDIT INCOME FOR SMALLHOLDER FARMERS THROUGH HORTICULTURAL PLANTATIONS IN BANGLADESH
Bangladesh
Varaha ClimateAg
India
Mango and guava trees
5,000
This project will enlist farmers in Chapainawabganj, Nogaon, and Rajshahi districts of Bangladesh to plant mango and guava trees on a portion of their lands. The farmers will sign contracts with the project proponent, Varaha ClimateAg Pvt, guaranteeing the company "exclusive rights to produce credits from the designated acreage". Varaha's "implementation partner" is the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture Bangladesh. The companies say the project "spans an area of about 10,000 hectares" and that 5,000 ha has already been planted with trees. Varaha is backed by the private equity fund Omnivore and this project is featured by the company Floras, which "connects corporate loyalty programs with accredited carbon offset and removal projects."
Quechua medicinal herbs and (agro)forestry in the central Bolivian Andes
Bolivia
Climate Lab
Belgium
Fruit and other tree species
1,000
This project will work with Quechua communities in the Cochabamba department of Chapare province in central Bolivia to plant native and fruit tree species on around 1,000 ha of "degraded lands". Belgium-based Climate Lab is leading the project, with its local partner Misk’i Kausay. They will sign agreements with local agrarian unions who will be allocated a "minimum payment" to establish tree nurseries, set-up and manage agroforestry plots and conduct "enrichment planting with endemic species" of trees. The carbon rights will be transferred to Climate Lab. "If however, 60% of the net revenues exceeds the fixed payment scheme, the project will fund supplementary socioecological reinvestments".
Restoring Degraded Lands for Biodiversity Conservation and Livelihood Development in Brazil
Brazil
Saving Nature
US
Various tree species
627
This project aims to plant various native tree species on 627 ha of "degraded" lands in the Guapiaçu River sub-basin, in Brazil's Atlantic Forest that are owned by the Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu (REGUA). REGUA is a 7,559 ha private reserve owned by the UK's Locke family, heirs of British industrialist Hilmar Werner, who in 1907 acquired lands in the area to supply his textile factories. The project lands were acquired in 2021 through a partnership with the US-based conservation group, Saving Nature, which then brought Climate Impact Partners in to act as the proponent for the project. Climate Impact Partners is a UK/ US company with extensive carbon credit development and corporate "net zero" certification, whose strategy includes targeting Fortune Global 500 companies like Microsoft.
Reforestation of Lands for Multiple Purposes as a Sustainable Development Driver
Brazil
Klabin
Brazil
Eucalyptus trees
312
The project will plant trees to reforest sections of farmlands used for agriculture and cattle ranching in the Brazilian states of Paraná and Santa Catarina. The lands will either be acquired or leased to the project proponent Klabin S/A, which is developing the project with consultancy Plantar Carbon Ambiental Ltda. Two farms have already been integrated into the project in Curiúva and Pitanga, Paraná, where 312 ha will be planted with trees. Landowners engaging with Klabin retain the right to sell the carbon credits generated to another party, but will have to reimburse Klabin for administrative and structuring costs. Klabin is one of the largest pulp and paper producers in Brazil and has 375,000 ha of tree plantations under management. It is owned by Brazil's billionaire Klabin family.
This project will plant a mix of tree species on a 954 ha area of land, known as Facenda Barra do Facão, that is being leased from a private land owner in the northeastern part of Brazil, in the municipality of Cardidade, Ceará State. The project is being implemented by the Brazilian forestry company Ymbu Agroflorestal and is managed by Swiss carbon consultancy South Pole. South Pole will have all rights on carbon credits generated by the project, but these are being managed exclusively for the giant Belgian mining company Umicore, which is funding the project.
This project is located at the Cerrado Biome, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. It aims to plant eucalyptus on 15,426 ha of land owned or leased by the project proponent, Suzano S.A., for the commercial plantation of pulp/paper and for carbon credit revenue. Established in the 1920s, Suzano Papel e Celulose is the largest producer of eucalyptus pulp in the world, and manages over a million hectares of eucalyptus plantations in Brazil, which it intends to double over the next decade. While Suzano is accused of massive land grabbing, violent repression against communities and polluting the lands and waterways where it operates, it has secured billions in "green" financing from banks like the World Bank's International Finance Corporation.
Brazil Pastureland Regeneration with Native Palm Silvopasture
Brazil
INOCAS
Germany
Macauba palm trees
4,000
This project proposes to plant macaúba palm trees on 4,000 ha of privately owned pasture or cropland in the Vale do Paraíba region, located within the Atlantic Forest biome in Brazil. The project is funded by the Brazilian multinational mining company Vale and will sell carbon credits through the US-based carbon offset broker, Native. The company implementing the project is German-based, Innovative Oil and Carbon Solutions (INOCAS) which claims to be in the process of securing over 240,000 ha for tree plantation carbon offset projects in Brazil. Its partners include Lufthansa and Capital for Climate and it has received funding from the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and The Althelia Climate Fund of the European Investment Bank.
This project will plant trees on 39,150 ha of "degraded" pasture land "where slash and burn had been practiced" in Para State, Brazil. The lands were purchased by a large land owning company called Transportadora Floresta do Araguaia Ltda, which is part of a consortium implementing the project, the Amazon Reforestation Consortium. The other lead partner in the consortium is Grupo Dacko, the "largest Tree Nursery in the Amazon Biome". Transportadora Floresta do Araguaia appears to be owned by the family of billionaire businessman José Celso Gontijo, who is at the centre of a major federal corruption investigation in Brazil known as Pandora's Box. The companies in the consortium will have rights to all the carbon generated, while local people will benefit through the provision of cook stoves and "training on sustainable land use practices".
This project is located at the Cerrado Biome, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. It aims to plant eucalyptus on 67,202 ha of land owned or leased by the project proponent, Suzano S.A., for the commercial plantation of pulp/paper and for carbon credit revenue. Established in the 1920's, Suzano (Suzano Papel e Celulose) is the largest producer of eucalyptus pulp in the world, and manages over a million hectares of eucalyptus plantations in Brazil, which it intends to double over the next decade. While Suzano is accused of massive land grabbing, violent repression against communities and polluting the lands and waterways where it operates, it has secured billions in "green" financing from banks like the World Bank's International Finance Corporation.
This project will plant a mix of tree species on 5,000 ha of lands currently used for "low intensity cattle grazing" in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The project started with 80 ha on one large-scale farm in 2023 and another 400 ha is scheduled for planting in 2024. The project will expand by enrolling more land owners into the project. Landowners who participate will receive fixed yearly payments based on the area of their property, over a period of 40 to 100 years. The project is led by the US-based technology company Pachama and is implemented by Brazil's Instituto Terra de Preservação Ambiental. So far, Pachama has already sold credits from the project to Latin American supermarket chain Mercado Libre for 170 ha and Spotify for 200 ha.
This project aims to plant various tree species initially on 1,120 ha of private land within the 2,953 ha cattle ranch owned by the Tomasetto family in the Pampa biome in Rio Grande do Sul, south of Brazil. The family has signed a lease agreement with the project proponent, The Green Branch B.V., a Dutch company that specialises in tree plantation projects in Brazil, giving the company rights over the carbon generated by the project.
This project will grow açaí palm and implement "low carbon cattle grazing" on 372 ha of farmland in the municipality of Lábrea, within the Amazon Biome. The land is situated within a large area of land owned by the project proponent, Brazilian businessman Ricardo Stoppe Jr, the largest seller of carbon credits in the country. This larger area of land is the site of two Verra certified REDD+ projects that sell credits to corporations like Nestlé and Shell through Stoppe's company Grupo Ituxi. Grupo Ituxi has been accused of violating the rights of Indigenous communities in carbon credit contracts and of using its projects to launder timber from illegally deforested areas.
This project aims to plant trees on 8,000 ha of degraded "commercial forestry" land in a corridor of the Atlantic Forest biome in the state of Bahia, Brazil. The proponent is The Green Branch B.V., a Dutch company specialising in tree plantation projects in Brazil, and the implementing partner is Futuro Florestal, a Brazilian forest asset manager which works with investors that have purchased farms.
Teak Plantations at Engenho Brasileiro farm and Serra Novam
Brazil
The Rohatyn Group
US
Teak trees
5,000
The Rohatyn Group (TRG) is a New York-based private equity firm that manages over 600,000 ha of farmland and timberland around the world. It has multiple funds investing in timber plantations in Brazil. TRG says this project will "establish an investment case" for carbon tree plantations by planting teak on two former sugar cane farms in Brazil's Pernambuco state covering 364 ha. One of the farms, Engenho Brasileiro, in the municipality of Água Preta, is the site of a 220 family encampment by Brazil's Landless Workers' Movement (MST) since 2002, while the other farm, Engenho Serra Nova in the municipality of Joaquim Nabuco, was part of a 2020 legal action by Dutch investors against a Brazilian teak plantation company for fraud. TRG says it will use the revenues generated by the sale of carbon credits to buy up neighbouring land and expand its operation to 5,000 ha.
This project intends to establish eucalyptus plantations on 100,000 ha of "degraded" lands that were formerly used for pasture or agricultural crops in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The company, Eldorado Brasil Celulose S/A, says it will plant an initial 32,226 ha on 50 properties that is has leased or acquired since 2019. Eldorado Brasil Celulose is owned by Canadian-based Paper Excellence, one of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world, which is owned by a member of the Indonesian billionaire Wijaya family and is connected to the Wijaya's masssive conglomerate Sinar Mas.
This project proposes to plant macaúba palm trees on private farms that were "previously degraded pastures and/or croplands" in the Brazilian states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Paraí. The proponent, the German company Innovative Oil and Carbon Solutions (INOCAS), will lease the lands from private owners for a rental fee or under a profit sharing agreement. While the Verra project description says it will cover 573 ha, the company states elsewhere that it has secured 11,000 ha, with 33,000 ha in final negotiations and another 200,000 ha in initial discussions. The company works with the Swiss-based "nature based solutions" consultancy, Ecosecurities Group Limited and its partners include Lufthansa and Capital for Climate. It has also received funding from the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, and The Althelia Climate Fund of the European Investment Bank.
This project will establish large tree plantations on 88,400 ha of lands previously used for livestock grazing and crop production. The Brazilian project proponent Re.green acquired the lands by purchasing farms in the area. Its intention is to eventually plant hardwood trees on 1 million ha in the Amazon and Atlantic Forests. The company is backed by Brazilian banking billionaires, including the Moreira Salles family and Gavea Investimentos, controlled by former Brazil central banker Arminio Fraga. Its founder and CEO is Brazilian economist Bernardo Baeta Neves Strassburg, who has been widely criticized for overestimating the benefits of tropical forest restoration and minimising the impacts on communities.
Rabo Carbon Bank Trees for Farmers (TFF) Brazil ARR Grouped Project
Brazil
Rabobank
Netherlands
Various tree species
2,000
This project proposes to plant various tree species on 2,000 ha of private farms owned by the Botuverá Group, a logistics and agribusiness company that manages 47,000 ha of soy, maize and cattle in the Amazon, Cerrado and Atlantic Forest biomes of Brazil. The Bissoni family, owner of the Botuverá Group, has been repeatedly fined and accused of illegal deforestation, fraud, conflict of interest, and bad forest-fire management. The project proponent, the Dutch bank Rabobank, is one of the largest and most influential financial services providers in the food and agriculture sector. It recently established Rabobank Carbon Bank, a carbon certification process in conjunction with Plan Vivo and a remote sensing technology called Acorn, to monitor biomass and carbon sequestration. Rabobank's objective with the project is to expand the planted areas in three Brazilian biomes to 20,000 ha by 2062.
This project will plant trees on 75,000 ha of agricultural and pastureland in the Pontal do Paranapanema region of the state of São Paulo, Brazil through lease and carbon rights agreements with large private landowners. The project proponent, Biofílica Ambipar Environmental Investments S.A., is a multinational company known for securing deals on Indigenous territories and its ties with companies involved in mass deforestation such as the forestry company Grupo Jari and the giant meat company Minerva. Biofílica aims to become the largest "nature-based solutions" company in the world, and claims to already hold 1.5 million ha under carbon credit schemes. Working with Biofílica on this project is the Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas, which receives funding from multinational companies and large, international conservation organisations.
Serra do Sudeste Landscape Restoration and Reforestation Project
Brazil
The Green Branch
Netherlands
Various tree species
1,037
This project aims to plant various tree species initially on 470 ha of private land within the 1,037 ha cattle ranch owned by the Titton family in the Pampa biome in Rio Grande do Sul, south of Brazil. The Titton family is a shareholder in the project, and agreements have been signed with the project proponent, The Green Branch B.V., a Dutch company that specialises in tree plantation projects in Brazil. It will accrue all carbon revenues and then "negotiate the rights of these issued VCUs to the final beneficiaries."
Caeté Florestal S.A. is a Brazilian tree plantation company backed by Brazilian businessmen who made their fortunes in cosmetics and drug store chains. It has acquired three farms in Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso do Sul covering a total of 475 ha. For one of these farms, Fazenda Lagoa, a 135 ha former cattle ranch in Camapuã, Mato Grosso do Sul, it is implementing a project to generate carbon credits by planting a mix of trees (eucalyptus, teak, cedar, etc). The carbon project is being developed by another Brazilian company, Future Carbon Holding SA, which is backed by television host Luciano Huck and other businesspeople from the financial and private sanitation sectors. The companies say that Fazenda Lagoa is a "first instance" and their intention is to acquire and develop more pasture lands for carbon plantations in the Cerrado and Amazon regions.
Reforestation activities in Brazil for carbon removals from the atmosphere
Brazil
Grupo SADA
Brazil
Mahogany and cedar trees
1,300
This project aims to plant mahogany and cedar trees on 1,300 ha of a private farm owned by BERC Etanol e Agricultura LTDA in the state of Goiás, Brazil. The trees will be harvested for timber after a period of about 20 years. BERC is part of Grupo SADA, a conglomerate founded by Italian businessman Vittorio Medioli in the 1970s. Medioli is a former federal deputy in Brazil and was convicted for currency evasion and sued for cartel and gang formation in the transport sector. BERC is on the "dirty list" as a result of appalling labour conditions at its sugarcane plantations in Goiás.
This project aims to plant eucalyptus on a portion, 283 ha, of a farm owned by Brazilian Forestry Empreendimentos Florestais LTDA in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Brazilian Forestry Empreendimentos Florestais LTDA, whose motto is "Where money grows on trees", was established in 2019 and has since acquired at least four large farms in northern Minas Gerais on behalf of "investors" for planting eucalyptus. One of these investors is OptiAssets, a company established by the Monaco-based, digital investment manager PrivatAm. The owner of Brazilian Forestry Empreendimentos Florestais is Carlo Rovegno, who appears in the Panama Papers as an intermediary for 16 offshore companies connected to Monaco and Brazil. He claims that his family company has acquired 18,000 ha of land for eucalyptus plantations in Brazil, and planted over 2,000 ha. The project proponent is Carbon Credits Consulting SRL (CCC), an Italian consulting firm that is developing carbon credit projects in South America and Madagascar with a wide portfolio of corporate clients. It has two other Verra registered carbon credit projects for eucalyptus plantations in Brazil, in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. Its president, Chicco Testa, is a former Italian politician, a journalist and managing director of numerous large corporations in telecommunications, energy, and finance.
This project will plant various tree species on 20,000 ha of pasturelands in the Baixo Rio Jamari watershed in the State of Rondônia, Brazil, in the Southern Amazon region. The project proponent is ReforesTerra (Brazil), owned by Reforest'Action, a French "crowd-planting" carbon offset platform. Centro de Estudos Rioterra, which is implementing the project, has signed agreements with smallholder land owners to give ReforesTerra ownership over the carbon credits that are generated, and the company will pay them US$50/hectare/year to plant and maintain the trees, relocate cattle and fence the areas. Roundup herbicide will be used to clear the lands. Reforest'Action's clients include BNP Paribas and Mastercard.
This project intends to plant various tree species on 181,500 ha of purchased, private or leased land across nine Brazilian states. The initial phase involves a 8,826 ha property located in the municipality of Maracaçume. The Brazilian project proponent Re.green has acquired vast "degraded ranches" with the intention to eventually plant hardwood trees on 1 million ha in the Amazon and Atlantic Forests. The company is backed by Brazilian banking billionaires, including the Moreira Salles family and Gavea Investimentos, controlled by former Brazil central banker Arminio Fraga. Its founder and CEO is Brazilian economist Bernardo Baeta Neves Strassburg, who has been widely criticized for overestimating the benefits of tropical forest restoration and minimising the impacts on communities.
In this project, the Brazilian company Symbiosis Investimentos e Participações will plant various tree species on 50,000 ha of pasture land in the south of Bahia, Brazil. The project will begin on a 670 ha farm owned by Symbiosis and will then expand on to farms acquired by the company or on lands owned by others that have "contractual rights established with Symbiosis". Symbiosis is financed by a US$200 million private equity fund that Goldman Sachs manages on behalf of Apple to invest in carbon offset projects. In its deal with Symbiosis, Apple will receive 49% of the carbon credits from this project, with priority to purchase the remaining 51%. Apple, through BA Mata Atlântica, a subsidiary of its Carbon Solutions Fund LP (part of its $400 million Restore Fund), also owns a 49% share in a joint venture with Symbiosis, called Symbiosis Florestal, which will oversee the project.
This project will establish eucalyptus plantations on lands used for livestock and soybean cultivation, in the Brazilian state of Paraná. The initial project area is on 950 ha in four farms that appear to have been purchased by the project proponent SLB Groupe with investment from French private equity firm Mirova's Land Degradation Neutrality Fund, which is backed by the European Investment Bank, the French Development Agency, the UK department for environment food and rural affairs, the Government of Luxembourg, Global Affairs Canada and several private banks. SLB is a French forestry company that manages 10,000 ha of "forests" in France, Romania and Brazil.
Lacan Forestal, a division of the private equity firm Lacan Ativos Reais, manages four funds that specialise in acquiring pasture land in southern Brazil and converting it to tree plantations for timber that it sells to pulp and paper companies like Suzano. It claims to currently manage 125,000 ha on behalf of at least 32 Brazilian and overseas pension funds as well as wealthy family offices. In this project, it will plant eucalyptus trees on 4,275 ha of lands it acquired in Nova Mutum municipality, Mato Grosso that were formerly used for cattle raising, and it will "reforest" another 26 ha with "native species" trees on three farms it owns in Ribas do Rio Pardo, Mato Grosso do Sul.
Investancia Holding BV is a Dutch company founded and managed by Marcel van Heesewijk that is engaged in large-scale cultivation of pongamia to produce biodiesel and carbon credits. It is 30% owned by Shell. The company operates a 750 ha pongamia nursery and plantation in Paraguay, in the district of Carmelo Peralta, along the border with Brazil, and another 30 ha nursery across the border near Porto Murtinho, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. After signing supply agreements with BP, Shell and Brazil's largest biodiesel company, Grupo ECB, in 2021, Investancia initiated plans to scale up its Paraguayan operations to 120,000 ha and to expand its operations in Brazil to "several thousand hectares". The company intends to generate carbon credits from both of these projects and has applied to Verra for certification. It will acquire lands for cultivation through lease agreements with private landowners under which it will plant and own the trees and will get full rights to the carbon in exchange for rental payments. US-based Climate Investment Partners will develop the carbon credit scheme for the Brazil project.
Climate Investment Partners LLC is involved in several carbon tree plantation projects in Cameroon. This one, in the Littoral Region of Cameroon, is being carried out with the local NGO Rural Development Centre Cameroon (RUDEC). It will plant trees on 10,000 ha of "unused or under-used agricultural lands or degraded grassland" through agreements with communities that have customary use of chiefdom lands. These agreements will give RUDEC "access and land use rights to the property for the entirety of the project length for the purpose of reforestation, and the right to claim carbon credits". Profits from the sale of carbon credits will be shared with the communities through agreed upon "project financing activities".
Restoration of degraded lands through the plantation of forest and fruit trees and distribution of improved stoves in Northern Cameroon
Cameroon
S2 Services
Cameroon
Various tree species
25,000
This project intends to plant various fruit trees on 25,000 ha of "grassland savannah" and "abandoned lands" in the Nyambaka Council forest in Northern Cameroon and to organise cooperatives for communities to sell products from the trees, such as cashew, arabic gum, shea butter, and mangos. The project proponent is S2 Services, a Douala-based climate finance developer, and the project implementor is the Inter-Regional Committee for Drought Control in the North (CISLN), which was formed by Presidential decree in 2019.
Dutch Green Business Group (DGB) is a publicly listed company pursuing carbon credit projects in Africa. In Cameroon, it is partnering with Climate Investment Partners and a newly formed Cameroon-based company, Green Zone International, on a project to plant fruit and nut trees on 44,255 ha of grasslands across Cameroon. The project will start in the Yoko Sub Division, Mbam-et-Kim Department "spanning an area of 2,300 - 3,000 ha". Farmers will sign agreements to plant and look after trees provided by Green Zone International on their lands and give the company exclusive rights to the carbon generated. The farmers will have the option to sell their fruits and nuts to Green Zone International, who will market the crops, and the companies will create a fund with a portion of the profits from the sale of carbon credits to invest in community projects. Dutch Green Business was founded by UK businessman John Mappin, heir to a jewellery fortune. He is a known funder of extreme rightwing political causes in the UK and the US.
Fes Enying: (agro)forestry and forest conservation in Cameroon
Cameroon
Graine de Vie
Luxembourg
Fruit, nut, date palms and non-timber trees
31,640
This project will involve both tree planting and forest conservation of an area of 31,640 ha in four departments of Cameroon: Mayo-Banyo, Lom-et-Djérem, Dja-et-Lobo and Nyong-et-Kéllé. The areas are composed of community and smallholder lands used by local people for swidden agriculture, livestock grazing and hunting and gathering. The project will work with local communities to increase tree planting and will construct dozens of nurseries to supply fruit, nut, date and other non-timber trees to communities for the establishment of "communal gardens" and small orchards. The project is lead by the Belgian/Luxembourg-based organisation Graine de Vie, whose "mission is to offset the ecological footprint generated in industrialized countries through the planting of trees in developing countries", and it is supported by an 800k€ grant from the Luxembourg Climate Fund. Climate Lab in Belgium is coordinating the certification of the project with Plan Vivo. "Detailed provisions on the distribution of carbon benefits will be agreed with all partners in a Project Agreement".
This project will plant various tree species on 28,887 ha of state-owned land in Baishan City, Jilin Province, China. The project proponent, Jilin Forest Industry Environmental Technology, is a "state-owned" subsidiary of Jilin Forestry Industry Group Co., Ltd., one of the largest state-owned forestry companies in China but is also 51% owned by Eco-Tec Asia (Beijing) Co Ltd, a publicly listed company owned by Eco-Tec Asia Pte Ltd of Singapore and several shareholders, including China's state-owned financial company CITIC. Finnish Carbon Asset Management Consultation will manage the carbon credit schemes in collaboration with Shell Energy (China). Shell is already implicated in several carbon credit offset scandals in China, and investigations have raised serious concerns about fire risks and lack of transparency with many carbon tree plantation projects in China.
This project will plant various tree species on 10,033 ha of "wasteland" in the Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. According to the proponents, Eco Green Link Co Ltd and Shipbuilding Information Center, 977 ha are owned and managed by Qiubei Forestry Bureau while the remaining lands are collective-owned by 98 village committees - who have all agreed to transfer management of the carbon credit schemes to the forestry bureau and to the proponents. Eco Green Link is a Hong Kong company that shares an address with an electronics company implicated in the Panama Papers, Roshing International, and its subsidiary Mester Co Ltd. Shipbuilding Information Centre appears to be owned by China State Shipbuilding Corporation, one of the top 10 defence groups in China.
This project intends to plant spruce, pine and elm on 2,060 ha of forestry farms owned by the Yitulihe Forestry Bureau and Genhe Forestry Bureau on the western side of Greater Khingan Mountains, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. The project proponent is Inner Mongolia Daxing’anling Carbon Sink Technology Co., Ltd. owned by the China Inner Mongolia Forest Industry Group. The carbon rights and trees are owned by the China Inner Mongolia Forest Industry Group who has developed over 156,000 ha of similar projects in the Greater Khingan Mountains.
This project will plant coniferous trees on 10,158 ha of a state-owned tree farm managed by the Guiyang Forestry Bureau, in Guiyang City, China. The proponent, Guiyang Forestry Industry Company, has signed a "Carbon Sink Afforestation Cooperation and Development Agreement" with Guizhou Quanta Carbon Environmental Technology, to manage the carbon credit scheme for this project. The latter is owned by publicly-listed Beijing Qiantanxing Environmental Technology Group (or Quanta Carbon), which has Shell, Vitol, BP and Baosteel among its clients.
Guangzhou Guangtan Carbon Emission Development & Investment
China
Poplar, willow, spruce and pine trees
3,450
This project aims to plant poplar, willow, spruce and pine on 3,450 ha of "barren" land in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, China. The project proponent is Nehe Hansenyuan Forestry Investment Co., Ltd, while the carbon developer is Guangzhou Guangtan Carbon Emission Development & Investment Co Ltd, which claims to have developed similar projects across China covering a total of 13 million ha. It is stated that agreements have been signed with the proponent and the local governments giving the proponent carbon and land use rights to lands owned by village collectives and "the unconditional, undisputed and unencumbered ability to claim that the project will generate the project's climate, community and biodiversity benefits."
This project will plant pine, ash and spruce trees on 14,000 ha in Fusong county, Jilin Province, China owned by Quanyang Forestry Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Jilin Forestry Industry Group. The project proponent, Jilin Forest Industry Environmental Technology, is a "state-owned company" that is also a subsidiary of Jilin Forestry Industry Group, but is 51% owned by Eco-Tec Asia (Beijing) Co Ltd, a publicly listed company owned by Eco-Tec Asia Pte Ltd of Singapore and several shareholders, including China's state-owned financial company CITIC. Finnish Carbon Asset Management Consultation will manage the project's carbon credit schemes in collaboration with Shell Energy (China), which has agreed to purchase the credits. Shell is already implicated in several carbon credit offset scandals in China, and investigations have raised serious concerns about the fire risks and lack of transparency in carbon tree plantation projects in China.
Zhangye City Afforestation Project in Gansu Province
China
Climate Bridge
China
Various tree species
23,398
This project intends to plant various tree species on 23,398 ha of barren land in Zhangye City, Gansu Province of China. The project proponent is Zhangye Academy of Forestry Sciences, and the carbon credit sales are managed by Climate Bridge. The companies claim to have signed a lease agreement with the local villages giving them rights to manage the lands over the project crediting period. Climate Bridge is a Shanghai-based company founded in 2006 by two Australians- a former McKinsey consultant and an Oxford economist/entrepreneur. It now appears to be owned by Chinese investors and claims to be the country's largest developer of carbon credit projects, with the oil company Shell among its clients.
This project will plant trees on 64,012 ha of agricultural and "unused" land in Dingxi City, Gansu Province of China. Carbon rights will be transferred to the project proponent through agreements with village collectives, while compensation is to be provided for the agricultural income forgone. The project proponent is Dingxi City Chankou Forestry Proving Ground, and the carbon credit buyer is Climate Bridge Ltd, a Shanghai-based company that was founded in 2006 by two Australians- a former McKinsey consultant and an Oxford economist/entrepreneur. It now appears to be owned by Chinese investors and claims to be the country's largest developer of carbon credit projects, with the oil company Shell among its clients.
This project aims to plant hardwood trees on 24,000 ha in Luoyang City, Henan Province, China. Guizhou Qianhe Carbon Technology Co., Ltd, the project proponent, claims to have signed agreements with village collectives and farm owners for "forestry development".
This project aims to plant fast growing pine and China fir on 43,600 ha of village collective property in Bijie City, Guizhou Province of China. The project proponent is Guizhou Xinzhanxin Agricultural Technology Co Ltd and the carbon credits will be sold by Shanghai Libra Investment & Management Co., Ltd, one of the largest carbon credit brokers in China. It lists Dutch energy and commodity trader Vitol as a client. The companies say they have signed agreements with villagers who have "voluntarily" agreed to transfer use-rights to their lands to Guizhou Xinzhanxin. It is not clear whether and how carbon revenues will be shared with the villagers.
This project will plant pine, spruce and ash trees on 22,565 ha of lands in Baishan City, Jilin Province, China that are owned by Sanchazi Forestry, a subsidiary of Jilin Forestry Industry Group, one of the largest state-owned forestry companies in China, with a total area of 1,348,000 ha under concessions. The project proponent, Jilin Forest Industry Environmental Technology, is a "state-owned company" that is also a subsidiary of Jilin Forestry Industry Group, but is 51% owned by Eco-Tec Asia (Beijing) Co Ltd, a publicly listed company owned by Eco-Tec Asia Pte Ltd of Singapore and several shareholders, including China's state-owned financial company CITIC. The proponent has already signed an agreement to sell the carbon credits generated from the project to Shell's Chinese subsidiary.
This project aims to plant various tree species on 3,738 ha of "barren land" across several counties in the Gansu Province of China. The proponent is the Gansu Xiaolongshan Forestry Conservation Center, an affiliate of Gansu Province Forestry and Grassland Bureau, while Guangdong Shengjin Ruixiang Carbon Asset Management Co., Ltd., a company involved in numerous tree plantation carbon projects in China, is the carbon credit buyer. It is claimed that for collectively owned land, agreements have been signed with village councils to transfer land use and carbon rights to the proponent.
Zhangjiakou Yuxian Afforestation Project in Hebei Province
China
Zhangjiakou Sailin Landscaping Co., Ltd.
China
Pine trees
11,800
This project aims to plant mainly pine on 11,800 ha in Yuxian County, Hebei Province, China. The project proponent, state-owned Zhangjiakou Sailin Landscaping Co Ltd, says it has agreements with all village committees giving it exclusive rights to the carbon generated by the project. It has also signed a carbon credit sale agreement with Shell Energy (China) Ltd.. Shell is already implicated in several carbon credit offset scandals in China, and investigations raise serious concerns about fire risks and lack of transparency with many carbon tree plantation projects in China.
This project will plant various tree species on 64,012 ha of agricultural and "unused" land in Zhangye City, Gansu Province of China. Carbon rights will be transferred to the project proponent through agreements with village collectives, while compensation is to be provided for the agricultural income forgone. The project proponent is Zhangye Academy of Forestry Sciences, and the carbon credit buyer is Climate Bridge Ltd, a Shanghai-based company that was founded in 2006 by two Australians- a former McKinsey consultant and an Oxford economist/entrepreneur. It now appears to be owned by Chinese investors and claims to be the country's largest developer of carbon credit projects, with the oil company Shell among its clients.
This project intends to plant pine trees on 30,169 ha of lands with sparse tree cover in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province of China. Guizhou Xinzhanxin Agricultural Technology is the project proponent and Shanghai Libra Investment & Management Co., Ltd, one of the largest carbon credit brokers in China, will sell the carbon credits. It lists Dutch energy and commodity trader Vitol as a client. The companies claim to have signed agreements with the village collectives that own the land giving them the rights to manage the lands and sell the carbon credits on a profit-sharing basis.
Yulong State Owned Capital Investment and Operation
China
Pine and spruce trees
37,400
This project aims to plant pine and spruce trees on 37,400 ha of forested land in Yulong Naxi Autonomous County, in the Yunnan Province of China, a county home to several minority groups including the Naxi, Tibetan and Miao. The project proponent, the Yulong State Owned Capital Investment and Operation Co Ltd, claims to have signed agreements with village committees giving it the rights to carbon revenues from their lands. Carbon credits generated by the project will be sold by Search Co2 (Shanghai) Environmental Science & Technology Co Ltd, which lists Vitol, Shell, BP, Glencore and Louis Dreyfus Commodities amongst its customers.
Ludian County afforestation project in Yunnan Province
China
Sichuan Sentan Industrial
China
Trees
7,782
In this project, the Chinese company Ludian State-owned Forest Farm will generate carbon credits by planting trees on 7,782 ha of "barren lands" in Ludian County. The company says it has obtained user rights from village collectives for these lands. The project is being managed by Sichuan Sentan Industrial Co., Ltd. In 2024, Verra rejected the project for not initiating "the pipeline listing process within three years of the project start date".
This projects aims to plant various tree species on 3,400 ha of "agricultural" and "unused" land in Kaizhou District, Chongqing, China. The project proponent is the National Forestry and Grassland Administration Northwest Investigation and Planning Institute, while the carbon credit scheme is managed by Climate Bridge Ltd. It is stated that all village collectives have agreed to transfer carbon and land use rights to the proponent, through the Kaizhou Forestry Bureau. Climate Bridge, is a Shanghai-based company that was founded in 2006 by two Australians - a former McKinsey consultant and an Oxford economist/entrepreneur. It now appears to be owned by Chinese investors and claims to be the country's largest developer of carbon credit projects, with the oil company Shell among its clients. The National Forestry and Grassland Administration is managed by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
Zhangjiakou Wanquan District 2017 Afforestation Project
China
Zhangjiakou Sailin Landscaping Co., Ltd.
China
Pine trees
9,896
This project aims to plant pine trees on 9,896 ha of "barren" land belonging to village committees in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province of China. The project proponent, Zhangjiakou Sailin Landscaping Co., Ltd., says it has received authorisation from the Wanquan government to have full rights over the carbon credits generated by the project. Zhangjiakou Sailin Landscaping has developed numerous projects in China where it has signed carbon credit sale agreements with Shell Energy (China). Shell is implicated in several carbon credit offset scandals in China, and investigations raise serious concerns about fire risks and lack of transparency with many carbon tree plantation projects in China.
This project will plant trees on 22,529 ha, belonging to Wangou Forestry Bureau in Baishan City, Jilin Province, China. The project proponent, Jilin Forest Industry Environmental Technology, is a "state-owned company" that is also a subsidiary of Jilin Forestry Industry Group, but is 51% owned by Eco-Tec Asia (Beijing) Co Ltd, a publicly listed company owned by Eco-Tec Asia Pte Ltd of Singapore and several shareholders, including China's state-owned financial company CITIC. Finnish Carbon Asset Management Consultation will manage the project's carbon credit schemes in collaboration with Shell Energy (China), which has agreed to purchase the credits. Shell is already implicated in several carbon credit offset scandals in China, and investigations have raised serious concerns about the fire risks and lack of transparency in carbon tree plantation projects in China.
This project has planted various tree species on 4,950 ha of "barren" land in 6 towns and 8 villages in Qinyuan County, Changzhi City, Shanxi Province of China. The project proponent, Shanxi Qingze Yangguang Environmental Protection Technology Co Ltd, says that all village collectives and state-owned farms have agreed to transfer rights to the land and forests to the company, as well as the carbon credit rights within the project boundary during the project crediting period (from 2016 to 2076). The carbon credit developer is Climate Bridge Ltd, a Shanghai-based company that was founded in 2006 by two Australians- a former McKinsey consultant and an Oxford economist/entrepreneur. It now appears to be owned by Chinese investors and claims to be the country's largest developer of carbon credit projects, with the oil company Shell among its clients.
This project will plant trees on 13,635 ha of sparsely forested areas in Luoyang City, Henan Province, China. Guizhou Qianhe Carbon Technology Co., Ltd, the project proponent, has signed carbon project development agreements with the village committees, who own the land.
This project aims to plant various tree species on 23,363 ha of agricultural land in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province of China. The project proponent, Lanzhou Landscaping and Greening Service Center, have signed lease agreements with land owners who have agreed to transfer land-use rights and carbon rights to the proponent. The carbon credit schemes are managed by Gansu Heihe Electric Power Sales Co., Ltd., a state-owned enterprise, and Climate Bridge, a Shanghai-based company that was founded in 2006 by two Australians- a former McKinsey consultant and an Oxford economist/entrepreneur. Climate Bridge now appears to be owned by Chinese investors and claims to be the country's largest developer of carbon credit projects, with the oil company Shell among its clients.
This project aims to plant trees on 33,000 ha in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. The project proponent is Guangxi Baixin Agricultural Technology Development Co., Ltd (Baixin), while Shanghai Libra Investment & Management Co., Ltd, one of the largest carbon credit brokers in China, will sell the carbon credits. It lists Dutch energy and commodity trader Vitol as a client. The companies claim that they have signed agreements with all the relevant village committees giving them the rights to manage the lands and sell the carbon credits on a profit-sharing basis.
This project aims to plant various tree species on 4,468 ha of "degraded" land in 51 villages in Baoxing County, China. The proponent, Sichuan Jiajinshan Forestry Bureau, says it "has been authorized by all the village committees on behalf of the local villages to implement project management and monitoring, as well as to sell VCUs generated from the project". Sichuan Jiajinshan Forestry Bureau is one of 28 state-owned forestry industrial companies in Sichuan, whose forestry operation covers 165,040 ha, accounting for 51% of Baoxing County. Beijing Qianyitan Management Consulting Co., Ltd. will develop the carbon credit scheme.
Longnan State Capital Investment Management Company,
China
Cypress and pine trees
12,805
This project will plant cypress and pine trees on 12,805 ha of agricultural land in Gansu Province of China. The project proponent, state-owned Longnan State Capital Investment Management Company, says the village collectives have agreed to transfer rights of land usage, forest management, and carbon credits to Longnan City Forest and Grassland Bureau who in turn have transferred the rights to them. The "expert group" advising on the project consists of state-owned Western Carbon Asset Business Management (Gansu) Co Ltd and Climate Bridge Ltd, a Shanghai-based company that claims to be the country's largest developer of carbon credit projects, with the oil company Shell among its clients.
This project aims to plant various tree species on 10,000 ha of "barren mountains and barren land" in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China. The project proponent is the Bureau of Natural Resources in Pengyang. It says all landowners or village collectives have agreed to transfer to the company "land use forest management rights and carbon revenue". Guangzhou GSCarbon Technology Co is the carbon developer.
This project will plant trees on 11,517 ha in Liaoyuan City, in Jilin Province, China. The project proponent, Envision Energy Co., Ltd, says it has obtained authorizations from village committees who own the land to implement the project and generate carbon credit revenues under a profit sharing agreement. Envision is a Chinese corporation that supplies wind turbines for large wind farms across the world and has recently begun investing in battery production. It has received $1 billion in funding from California-based venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and China's private equity firm Primavera Capital.
This project will plant various tree species on 18,400 ha of lands in Dunhua City, Jilin Province, China, owned by Baishishan Forestry, a subsidiary of one of China's largest forestry companies, Jilin Forestry Industry Group. The project proponent, Jilin Forest Industry Environmental Technology, is a "state-owned company" that is also a subsidiary of Jilin Forestry Industry Group, but is 51% owned by Eco-Tec Asia (Beijing) Co Ltd, a publicly listed company owned by Eco-Tec Asia Pte Ltd of Singapore and several shareholders, including China's state-owned financial company CITIC. The carbon credits from the project will be sold to Juno Carbon Investment & Environmental Technology to sell onwards to its clients, which include Shell, Sinopec, CNOOC, China Petroleum and Vitol.
Guangzhou Guangtan Carbon Emission Development & Investment
China
Various tree species
1,780
This project aims to plant various tree species on 1,780 ha in Chuzhou City, Anhui Province, China. The project proponent, Chuzhou Huangqingwei Modern Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., says it has signed agreements with the local government to which the village collectives who own the land covering the project area have "voluntarily" agreed to transfer land use management and carbon rights. The carbon developer for the project is Guangzhou Guangtan Carbon Emission Development & Investment Co Ltd, which claims to have developed similar projects across China covering a total of 13 million ha.
This project intends to plant spruce, pine and elm on 1,660 ha of forestry farms owned by the Alihe Forestry Bureau and Jiwen Forestry Bureau on the northern and eastern side of Greater Khingan Mountains, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. The project proponent is Inner Mongolia Daxing’anling Carbon Sink Technology Co., Ltd. owned by the China Inner Mongolia Forest Industry Group. The carbon rights and trees are owned by the China Inner Mongolia Forest Industry Group who has developed over 156,000 ha of similar projects in the Greater Khingan Mountains.
This projects aims to plant various tree species on 7,045 ha in the Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province of China. The project proponent is the National Forestry and Grassland Administration Northwest Investigation and Planning Institute, while the carbon credit scheme is managed by Climate Bridge Ltd. It is stated that all village collectives and state-run forestry farms have agreed to transfer carbon and land use rights to the proponent, through the Ulan Forestry and Grassland Bureau. Climate Bridge, is a Shanghai-based company that was founded in 2006 by two Australians - a former McKinsey consultant and an Oxford economist/entrepreneur. It now appears to be owned by Chinese investors and claims to be the country's largest developer of carbon credit projects, with the oil company Shell among its clients. The National Forestry and Grassland Administration is managed by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
This project intends to plant coniferous trees on 5,629 ha of "barren" land in the Qianxinan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, China. The proponent, Xingren Lishuping State-owned Forest Farm Ltd says the "village collective agreed the local government to manage and make decision of the project development, and local government authorized Xingren Lishuping State-owned Forest Farm to invest the development of carbon project and buy the carbon credits of the project." The carbon developer is Guangzhou Guotan Assets Management Co, a carbon offset company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, claims to have worked with Sumitomo, Marubeni, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale Bank, Taiwan Cement and Formosa Plastics Group.
ORDOS CITY AFFORESTATION PROJECT IN INNER MONGOLIA AUTONOMOUS REGION
China
Ordos Guorui Carbon Asset Management
China
Pine and poplar trees
945
This project aims to plant pine and poplar trees on 945 ha of "degraded land" owned by village collectives as well as state-owned forest plantations in Ordos city, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. The project is implemented by Inner Mongolia Ordos Forestry and Grassland Bureau, while the proponent is Ordos Guorui Carbon Asset Management Co. They say the village collectives have agreed to transfer carbon rights to Ordos Guorui Carbon Asset Management, which well then be sold by another company, Genius Carbon (Shanghai) Technology Co.
This project aims to plant cypress on 1,690 ha in Qujing City, Yunnan Province, China. The proponents are Guangzhou Guotan Assets Management Co., Ltd and Nanpanjiang Forestry Bureau of Yunnan Province. They claim to have signed agreements through local governments with village collectives, who have agreed to transfer land use rights and carbon credit rights to the proponents. Guangzhou Guotan Assets Management Co is a carbon offset company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange that claims to have worked with Sumitomo, Marubeni, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale Bank, Taiwan Cement and Formosa Plastics Group.
This project will plant pine trees on 25,900 ha of forested land in Anshun city, Guizhou Province of China. Guizhou Yuanda Carbon Forestry Development Co Ltd, the project proponent, claims that village committees have signed agreements transferring carbon rights and land use/management to the company. It also states that it will profit-share with the villagers and "will look for carbon credit buyers on behalf of owners".
This project aims to plant acacia and cypress trees on 23,570 ha of "barren hills" and "wastelands" in Luoyang City, Henan Province, China. The project proponent, Guizhou Qianhe Carbon Technology Co Ltd, says that the village committees and all 520,000 affected villagers have agreed to the project and to voluntarily transfer their forest use rights.
This project aims to plant pine trees on 36,607 ha of lands "suitable for forestry" in the Yunnan Province of China. The project proponent is state-owned Yunnan Ruihan Agricultural Technology Development Co., which says it has signed agreements with village committees giving it exclusive rights over the management of their land and the right to sell the carbon credits generated on a profit sharing basis.
This project intends to plant pine and prune trees on 25,000 ha of "barren" land across Loufan County, China. The proponent, Loufan County Forestry Workstation, says that it has agreements with the "local state-owned forest farms and local villages who owned the project land" for "rights of land usage, forest management rights and carbon credits during the project crediting period". The carbon credit scheme is being overseen by Shanxi Qingze Yangguang Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. and Climate Bridge, a Shanghai-based company that was founded in 2006 by two Australians- a former McKinsey consultant and an Oxford economist/entrepreneur. Climate Bridge now appears to be owned by Chinese investors and claims to be the country's largest developer of carbon credit projects, with the oil company Shell among its clients.
This project aims to plant various tree species on 13,784 ha belonging to the local forest bureau in Xining City, Qinghai Province of China. Huinan County Forestry Bureau has authorized the project proponent, Jinyongli Carbon Oxygen Technology (Jilin) Co., Ltd, to implement the carbon credit scheme and an associated company, JinYongCheng Technologies (Shanghai), is responsible for trading the carbon credits generated.
Wuwei City Afforestation Project in Gansu Province
China
Climate Bridge
China
Various tree species
28,818
This project intends to plant various tree species on 28,818 ha of "desert and barren" lands, in Wuwei City, Gansu Province, China. The project proponents, state-owned forest farms Toudunying and Zhisha Forest Farm, claim village collectives signed agreements giving them rights over the use and management of the land, as well as the right to the carbon credits. The carbon credit schemes are managed by Gansu Heihe Electric Power Sales Co Ltd and Climate Bridge, Shanghai-based company that was founded in 2006 by two Australians- a former McKinsey consultant and an Oxford economist/entrepreneur. Climate Bridge now appears to be owned by Chinese investors and claims to be the country's largest developer of carbon credit projects, with the oil company Shell among its clients.
Zhangjiakou Zhangbei County 2017 Afforestation Project
China
Zhangjiakou Sailin Landscaping Co., Ltd.
China
Pine trees
20,750
This project will plant pine trees on 20,750 ha of sparsely forested areas in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province of China. The project proponent, state-owned Zhangjiakou Sailin Landscaping Co Ltd, says it has been "fully authorized by Zhangbei government, who represents all the village committees" to implement the project and sell the carbon credits. It has already signed carbon credit purchase agreements with Shell's Chinese subsidiary. Shell is already implicated in several carbon credit offset scandals in China, and investigations raise serious concerns about fire risks and lack of transparency with many carbon tree plantation projects in China.
Zhangjiakou Chongli Afforestation Project in Hebei Province
China
Zhangjiakou Sailin Landscaping Co., Ltd.
China
Pine trees
18,920
This project will plant pine trees on 18,920 ha in Zhangjiakou City, Hebei Province, China on "barren lands collectively owned" by the 10 villages. The project proponent, state-owned Zhangjiakou Sailin Landscaping Co Ltd, says it signed an agreement to use the village land for the carbon project with the governments of Chongli District, which represent the village committees. It has already signed carbon credit purchase agreements with Shell's Chinese subsidiary. Shell is already implicated in several carbon credit offset scandals in China, and investigations raise serious concerns about fire risks and lack of transparency with many carbon tree plantation projects in China.
This project plans to plant pine and cypress trees on 39,000 ha in Guizhou Province of China. Guizhou Xinzhanxin Agricultural Technology is the project proponent while Shanghai Libra Investment & Management Co Ltd, one of the largest carbon credit brokers in China, will find and engage with the carbon credit buyers. Most of the identified land is communal land owned by village collectives and farmers, who are said to have agreed to authorize Guizhou Xinzhanxin to manage the reforested land and to accrue all the rights related to the carbon.
This project will plant pine trees on 19,853 ha in Tianshui City, Gansu Province of China on state-owned land or lands acquired through agreements with village collectives. The project proponent is Tianshui Forestry Science Institute and the carbon credit broker is Climate Bridge Ltd, a Shanghai-based company that was founded in 2006 by two Australians- a former McKinsey consultant and an Oxford economist/entrepreneur. It now appears to be owned by Chinese investors and claims to be the country's largest developer of carbon credit projects, with the oil company Shell among its clients.
This project involves the planting of various tree species on 24,000 ha of "barren land" in Nanyang City, Henan Province, China. Guizhou Qianhe Carbon Technology Co., Ltd is the project proponent. It claims that the village collectives that own some of the project land have agreed to transfer land management and carbon credit rights to the local company Xiangyuan Carbon Sink Co. Ltd, which has in turn signed an agreement with the proponent for rights to sell the carbon credits.
This project proposes to implement "sustainable grassland management measures" on 10,500 ha of "degraded" grasslands through seeding, fence building, strict grazing prohibitions for five years in Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. The project proponent, state-owned Maodeng Pasture, says local pastoralists will be relocated to "unidentified grassland" outside the project area and may "receive corresponding subsidies". Maodeng Pasture says all the "stakeholders" were consulted by way of a questionnaire and agreed and supported the project.
This project will plant trees on 39,590 ha of "previously barren lands" in Echeng County, Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province of North China. The project proponent is Jingle County Sailing Carbon Sink Development Co - a joint venture between carbon project developer Shanxi Sailing Double Carbon Technology Co and the state-owned Jingle County Yifen Agricultural Investment Development Co. The proponent says it acquired land usage rights from the local village collectives, without any revenue sharing arrangement from the sale of carbon credits. Although most of the project costs are covered by different levels of government, "local state-owned forest farms and villages that owned the project land agreed to transfer the right of forest management within the project boundary to Echeng County Forestry Workstation [the project implementor] for the project crediting period, including the transfer of carbon credit rights to facilitate the management of the carbon sink project."
Hunan Northern and Northwestern Area Afforestation Project
China
Jilin Forestry Industry Group
China
Conifer and poplar trees
41,318
This project aims to plant conifer and poplar trees on 41,318 ha of agricultural land in Hunan province, China. Village-collectives have signed land leasing agreements with Yiyang Senhua Forestry Development Co., Ltd. who in turn have authorized the project proponent, Jilin Forest Industry Environmental Technology Co., Ltd., to operate and manage the planted forests. The proponent is a subsidiary of Jilin Forestry Industry Group, one of the largest state-owned forestry companies in China and is 51% owned by Eco-Tec Asia (Beijing) Co Ltd, a publicly listed company owned by Eco-Tec Asia Pte Ltd of Singapore and several shareholders, including China's state-owned financial company CITIC. Finnish Carbon Asset Management Consultation will manage the carbon credit schemes in collaboration with Shell Energy (China). Shell is already implicated in several carbon credit offset scandals in China, and investigations have raised serious concerns about fire risks and lack of transparency with many carbon tree plantation projects in China.
This project seeks to plant various tree species on 4,618 ha in Sichuan Province, China. According to the proponent, Lingguan State-Owned Forest Protection Bureau of Yuexi County, a subsidiary of Yuexi Forest and Grass Bureau, land leases have been signed with the village collectives who own the project land to transfer land usage rights, forest management rights and carbon revenues to the proponent.
This project aims to convert 3,850 ha of "degraded, low-producing or abandoned plots" in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the Serranía del Perijá regions of northern Colombia into coffee agroforestry systems, with organic and fair-trade certification, through tree planting. The main proponent is the Canadian company Ecotierra, which has received financing for the project from the UN's private-public Land Degradation Neutrality Fund, through the private equity fund Urapi Sustainable Land Use Fund, which is also managed by Ecotierra.
AFFORESTATION OF DEGRADED GRASSLANDS IN VICHADA, COLOMBIA
Colombia
Forest First Colombia SAS
US
Eucalyptus and acacia trees
29,726
Forest First Colombia SAS was founded by a group of US and European businessmen from the finance industry after a search around the world for the ideal location to establish "sustainable" tree plantations. The company has around 30,000 ha on the plains of Vichada, Colombia that it acquired through the purchase of thirty-four farms on which, with significant funding from development banks such as the DFC of the US and the FinnFun of Finland, it will plant eucalyptus and acacia trees on 22,104 ha to generate carbon credits and produce wood chips. There are severe tensions over land in Vichada, which is home to numerous Indigenous communities and peasant families displaced from other parts of the country, and large agribusiness corporations, like Cargill, that have recently started moving into the area and grabbing lands.
NATURAL SILVOPASTORAL SYSTEMS IN THE COLOMBIAN ORINOQUIA REGION
Colombia
HSJ
Colombia
Grass and sandpaper trees
150,000
This project intends to apply "rangeland restoration" techniques on 150,000 ha of grasslands situated in the tropical savannah (including wetlands) along the Orinoco and Meta rivers, in the Colombian Orinoquía Region. The proponent of this project, is Bambusa - known as "Hacienda San Jose" (HSJ)- a cattle ranching agribusiness co-founded by bankers Paulo Moreira and Gabriel Jaramillo, both former bankers. This project will adopt sustainable grazing practices and plant "deep-rooted grass cultivars" and sandpaper trees. HSJ's partners in the project are its subsidiary Gestión 360 SAS and Genética de Producción SAS, as well as the CGIAR centre CIAT. Financing for the project is provided by the &Green Fund and HSJ's sale of cow-calf farms to investors. HSJ is expanding its operations in an area that overlaps with the long-standing plans of the Sikuani Indigenous People to expand their reservation. Global Forest Coalition reports that the Sikuani People were not properly informed nor consulted about the HSJ's plans.
MÜSESI project for active restoration in areas of the Sierra Nevada Santa Marta, Colombia
Colombia
Allcot AG
Switzerland
Various tree species
810
In 2021, Colombia's then President Iván Duque signed an agreement with Conservation International and Swiss-based Allcot AG to plant 700,000 trees in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in the territories of Arhuaco Indigenous communities. Under the project, Allcot will plant various tree species on 810 ha of land owned by 14 Arhuaco Indigenous communities in the Kogui-Malayo-Arhuaco reserve, with Conservation International as advisor. The project receives funding from Mastercard's Priceless Planet Coalition. Allcot AG is a carbon market developer that claims to manage 250 projects in Latin America and Africa, and it trades carbon through its subsidiary Allcot Trading, which also "collaborates hand in hand" with Conservation International. According to Spanish and Swiss media reports, the founder and CEO of Allcot, Alexis Ludwig Leroy of France, is under investigation by authorities in Liechtenstein for money laundering and was indicted by a Spanish court for suspected connections to the financial network behind the "queen of cocaine" Ana María Cameno. Ludwig says he is innocent of both accusations.
Yagual - Carbon Sequestration Grouped Project for the Restoration, Conservation and Sustainable Production in the Guerrero, Sumapaz and Rabanal Paramo Systems
Colombia
Société de Gestion de Projets Ecotierra
Canada
Various tree species
1,500
This project aims to plant over 1,500 ha of "non-forest land" on the Colombian high Andes that are degraded "through unsustainable and financially risky traditional potato production" and livestock grazing. The project proponent is Colombian reforestation developer Terra Integrity with the support of Société de Gestion de Projets Ecotierra Inc, a Canadian developer of climate finance projects that will commercialise the carbon credits. Initially 120 ha of various tree species will be planted although the identified potential area is of 254,223 ha. These areas mainly fall within or at the limits of conservation areas where the evolution of the Colombian protection/preservation legislation is identified as an opportunity for expanding planting activities. It is not clear what the benefit sharing agreement will be with the land owners who participate in the program.
NatureRe assisted natural regeneration project in degraded lands in Antioquia, Colombia
Colombia
NatureRe Capital
Switzerland
Various tree species
2,925
This project intends to plant various tree species on 2,925 ha of "lands degraded by livestock" in a property acquired by the proponent totalling 4,500 ha in the Antioquia Department, Colombia. The proponent is Swiss-based NatureRe Capital AG and the carbon credit scheme developer is Swiss-based South Pole Carbon Asset Management S.A.S. NatureRe buys land and manages carbon revenue on behalf of its corporate investors. They have recently partnered with Catona Climate a climate finance company whose motto is "finance is a force of nature" and whose partners include Microsoft, Edison Energy and Clarity AI.
12Tree is a German-based private equity fund established in 2017 to acquire and develop sustainable farms in Latin America and Africa. Today it has 12 farms covering 20,000 ha. In 2022, it began a certification process on five of these farms for carbon credits with Verra. One of these is the 7,200 ha La Gloria farm in Sabanas de San Ángel, Magdalena, Colombia, which 12Tree is planting with teak trees. The lands, which are on a 30-year lease to 12Tree, were formerly used for cattle grazing and cotton. 12Tree says this plantation is "currently verified of capturing 20 tons of carbon per hectare per year under the Colombian carbon credit scheme." 12Tree is owned by The Renewable Resources Group (RRG), through its nature-based solutions division. RRG specialises in "monetising" water by buying up lands in parts of the world where it can get access to cheap irrigation to produce high value crops for export, like grapes and berries. It claims to have acquired over 100,000 ha of agricultural lands in Mexico, the US, Chile and Argentina, as well as private water rights in the US, Chile and AustraliaΓÇö all areas where there are water scarcity issues.
12Tree is a German-based private equity fund established in 2017 to acquire and develop sustainable farms in Latin America and Africa. Today it has 12 farms covering 20,000 ha. In 2022, it began a certification process on five of these farms for carbon credits with Verra. One of these is the 15,000 ha La Paz farm on degraded pasture lands of the Vichada department in Colombia, which it describes as an "extensive forestry plantation". 12Tree says it owns 3,091 ha of this plantation. 12Tree is owned by The Renewable Resources Group (RRG), through its nature-based solutions division. RRG specialises in "monetising" water by buying up lands in parts of the world where it can get access to cheap irrigation to produce high value crops for export, like grapes and berries. It claims to have acquired over 100,000 ha of agricultural lands in Mexico, the US, Chile and Argentina, as well as private water rights in the US, Chile and Australia — all areas where there are water scarcity issues.
This project will plant trees on 1,069 ha of former cattle pastures in the department of Vichada, Orinoquia region of Colombia. The area is part of a 1,711 ha farm that the German company behind the project, BaumInvest, acquired through its Colombian subsidiary. BaumInvest will have exclusive rights to all carbon credits generated by the project. It says it has raised at least 30 million euros from over "2,000 investors" for its carbon plantation projects.
The project is planting eucalyptus and pine on 13,595 ha of two former ranches purchased by the project proponent, Reforestadora Cumare SAS in the Meta department, Colombia. The company says that there are no indigenous communities within the land area, yet there is evidence that indigenous communities in the vicinity of the project have been systematically displaced and dispossessed. Meta is one of the areas with the highest deforestation rates in Colombia. Reforestadora Cumare SAS is owned by CampoForestal, a Colombian forestry company jointly owned by the Chilean company Cambium, which manages over 1.2 million hectares of tree plantations in Uruguay and Chile for investment funds, and CampoCapital which manages investments in timber, cocoa, dairy and rubber in Colombia for foreign investors.
The project will plant 2,500 ha of cacao and cashew trees on 69 properties in the departments of Arauca, Caldas, Casanare, Córdoba, Huila, Meta, and Vichada, Colombia. The project proponent, Fundación Cataruben, says the "properties represent small, medium, and large producers". The project is part of a programme that Cataruben is managing on behalf of Colombia's largest chocolate company, Casa Luker SAS, to reduce emissions at its plantations and in the farms of its suppliers. The project is also supported by the USDA through a cacao development project managed by the US NGO Partners of the Americas.
0
https://globalcarbontrace.io/projects/47
THE FOREST CARBON PROJECT AGROREFORESTADORA RANCHO VICTORIA S. A
Colombia
Rancho Victoria
Colombia
Eucalyptus and other trees
3,618
This project intends to plant eucalyptus and other species on 3,618 ha in Colombia. The project proponent is Agroreforestadora Rancho Victoria SA, a Colombian company financed by a group of Bogotá-based investors that was established in 2007. It acquired 2,500 ha of lands formerly used for cattle grazing near the town of Puerto López, Meta Department, on which it has already established over 2,000 ha of acacia, pine and eucalyptus plantations for biomass production.
This project intends to plant cacao, initially on two properties totalling 2,258 ha of agricultural and pastureland in Cabuyaro, in the department of Meta, Colombia. The properties are owned by Bacao SAS, one of the project proponents. It is a subsidiary of Zürich-based agroindustrial developer Andean Cacao GmbH, who's shareholders include the multinational food company Mars, Swiss commodity trader ECOM Agroindustrial and 12Tree, a German private equity firm now owned by the Renewable Resources Group. The Dutch development bank (FMO) and the World Bank's IFC have already provided Bacao with $50 million in loans to develop 3,800 ha of cacao plantations and a processing facility. Bacao estimates it will make US$350 million in revenue from the sale of cacao and US$4.3 million from the sale of carbon credits from this project over a thirty year period. The other project proponent is U.S.-based climate finance advisory company, Terra Global Capital, which recently received an investment of up to US$640 million from U.S.-based Anew LLC, which claims to have "over 180 million tonnes of emission reductions, 90 forest carbon projects and 4 million acres of land enrolled in carbon projects".
This project will plant Hass avocado trees on 37 neighbouring properties covering a total of 2,232 ha in the departments of Antioquia, Caldas y Risarald, Colombia. The Colombian consultancy Forestry Consulting Group manages the project and sells the carbon credits, and says it will distribute the profits to the participating land owners according to the contracts signed with them. Forestry Consulting Group intends to expand to a further 20,000 ha once this first phase of the project is complete.
0
https://www.ecoregistry.io/projects/181
Proyecto Forestal Alcaraván Orinoquía
Colombia
Ecologico SAS
Colombia
Acacia, pine and eucalyptus tree
1,101
This project will plant acacia, pine and eucalyptus trees on 1,101 ha of mainly "clean pasture" lands belonging to eight landowners in the Meta and Vichada departments of Colombia. The company behind the project, Bogota-based Co2Cero SAS, will have all rights to the carbon produced over the crediting period of 20 years. At least two of the parcels of land are owned by Co2Cero's parent company, Ecologico SAS.
This project works with the Dutch NGO Solidaridad to support over 10,000 small cacao farmers to "optimise" their agroforestry systems by planting native shade trees on 21,077 ha of their farms in the Colombian departments of Caldas, Tolima, Huila, Antioquia, Santander, Bolívar, Cesar, Norte de Santander, Sucre, Córdoba, Meta and Casanare. It builds on an earlier project, called Café del Futuro, funded through the Norwegian development cooperation agency Norad. 80% of the revenue generated from sales of carbon credits will go directly to participating farmers, 10% will go to Solidaridad and 10% to Rabobank. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into the Acorn project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. A report by FIAN International and MAELA Colombia found that the participating farmers in the Colombian Acorn projects lacked information about the project. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
Proyecto de Carbono Forestal Vichada Alianza Fiduciaria S.A.
Colombia
Grupo LHS
Colombia
Pine trees
1,642
This project will plant pine trees on 1,642 ha of former pasture lands in Vichada region of Colombia. The company behind the project is Grupo LHS- a Colombian conglomerate involved in mining, transport, construction and oil palm plantations and cattle. It purchased the lands for the project through its subsidiary Alianza Fiduciaria SA, which is also managing the project, and will have rights over all the carbon generated through the project.
This project works with the Dutch NGO Solidaridad to support over 4,000 small coffee farmers to "optimise" their agroforestry systems by planting native shade trees on 2,500 ha of their farms in the Colombian department of Risaralda. It builds on an earlier project, called Café del Futuro, funded through the Norwegian development cooperation agency Norad. 80% of the revenue generated from sales of carbon credits will go directly to participating farmers, 10% will go to Solidaridad and 10% to Rabobank. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into the Acorn project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. A report by FIAN International and MAELA Colombia found that the participating farmers in the Colombian Acorn projects lacked information about the project. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
Forêt Ressources Management (FRG) Group is a company owned by French businessman Bernard Cassagne. It is involved in numerous forestry and carbon plantation projects in the Republic of the Congo, notably a controversial 40,000 ha carbon acacia plantation project in the Batéké Plateau with Total Energies that is accused of displacing local people. In this project, undertaken through FRG's subsidiary, Société des Plantations Forestières Batéké Brazzaville, it will plant acacia trees on 5,130 ha out of an area of 7,454 ha that it has acquired land titles for in the Batéké Plateau "with the agreement of land and local traditional authorities". The trees, some of which will be used to produce charcoal, will be intercropped with cassava by "volunteer village owners" who will get to keep 40% of the harvest. The company says it is also pursuing plans to expand into oil palm plantations in the area.
In June 2023, it was reported that the Swiss-based company ASC Impact was in negotiations for a 178,000 ha concession in the department of Cuvette and 50,000 ha concession in the Department of Niari for tree plantations, as well as a 42,000 ha concession in the Department of Niari for agriculture, by way of three subsidiaries established for these projects: Agricaf Congo, Transfor Congo and Afforest Congo. The tree plantations will reportedly supply mills that will be established in the special economic zones of Oyo-Ollombo and Pointe-Noire. A representative of the company says in December 2023 that they were awarded an initial set of concessions covering 32,000 ha in the Niari and Bouenza departments. ASC Impact has also acquired concessions for tree plantation projects in Ethiopia and Angola. The company, owned by Austria's Kirchmayer family, was previously focused on acquiring farmland in Eastern Europe. In Africa, it is partnering with EcoNetix, a company founded by an Austrian businessman who claims to be a "Senior Advisor to H.E. The President of Uganda" and which describes itself as "Africa's billion dollar carbon credit portfolio", and with Dubai-based businessman Sulaiman Al Fahim, who has close ties with the Abu Dhabi royal family. The companies, through a joint initiative called Sustain Now, say they will market 60 million tons of carbon credits by 2030 to UAE buyers and claim to have mangrove and tree plantation projects in the "pipeline" covering over 800,000 ha in Guinea Bissau, Papa New Guinea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Côte d'Ivoire.
In 2023, the Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (SNPC) launched its ECO ZAMBA project, through which it says it will plant acacia and other trees on 40,000 hectares of a total concession of 50,000 ha of savannah on the Batéké Plateaux. The technical partner in the project is the French consultancy Forêt Ressources Management, which also manages TotalEnergies' 40,000 ha carbon tree planting project in the same area of the Congo. SNPC is partnering with Eni and other fossil fuel majors in developing new oil and gas production sites as part of an effort to double the Congo's fossil fuel production by 2025.
In March 2021, the French oil giant TotalEnergies and the Republic of the Congo launched a project, called BaCaSi, to plant acacia trees on 38,000 ha of land in the Batéké Plateau. The project is being implemented on a 55,000 ha concession given to a subsidiary of the French consultancy Forêt Ressources Management, which is partnering with TotalEnergies on the project. An investigation by Unearthed and SourceMaterial found that the project has taken away farmers' land and threatens their livelihoods. According to villagers, white security guards arrived and started driving them from their fields. Some farmers received compensation of about US$1 per hectare. Some received nothing.
Forêt Ressources Management Group is a company owned by French businessman Bernard Cassagne. It is involved in numerous forestry and carbon plantation projects in the Republic of the Congo, notably a controversial 40,000 ha carbon acacia plantation project in the Batéké Plateau with Total Energies. This project will also plant acacia tress, intercropped with food crops, on 3,000 ha of savannah lands in the Batéké Plateau, north of Congo's capital city Brazzaville in order to produce charcoal, carbon credits and food crops. The lands are said to have been acquired by a real estate company belonging to Cassagne. The carbon credits and charcoal generated by the project will go exclusively to a joint venture of FRM and the French-German financial group Oddo-BHF, along with 60% of the food crops (the remainder will be "allocated to voluntary farmers").
This project will plant a mix of tree species on 1,141 hectares of former cattle pastures in Cantón Los Chiles district and Cantón Guatuso district in Costa Rica. The lands were acquired by the project developer, the German company BaumInvest AG, which has raised 30 million euros from over "2,000 investors" for its reforestation projects. It will have exclusive rights to all carbon credit sales from the project. The crediting period is 40 years, after which the company says the lands "will be included in the national protected area program of Costa Rica".
In early 2024, the Swiss company Allcot AG and the UAE-based company Fadox Group International, signed an agreement with the Côte d'Ivoire's Minister of Forests and Water for a project to plant trees within the forest reserves of Niellepouo (64,370 ha) and Suitoro (21,950 ha) in northern Côte d'Ivoire to generate carbon credits. Fadox is registered in the UAE but appears to be controlled by the family of the Ivoirien businessman and politician Lamine Fadika, who served as the Minister of Mines and Energy (1993-1995) and Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (1996-1999). Allcot AG is involved in several carbon offsetting projects, including in the Republic of the Congo and Colombia, where it has a subsidiary. According to Spanish and Swiss media reports, the founder and CEO of Allcot, Alexis Ludwig Leroy of France, is under investigation by authorities in Liechtenstein for money laundering and was indicted by a Spanish court for suspected connections to the financial network behind the "queen of cocaine" Ana Maria Cameno. Ludwig says he is innocent of both accusations.
This project intends to "restore" 70,000 ha of the Haut Sassandra gazetted Forest in Côte d'Ivoire, by planting various native species on "fallow/cocoa parcels" and "degraded forests" as well as to incentivise "agricultural transition programs on the outskirts" to favour "natural regeneration". The proponent is aDryada, a French large-scale "nature based solutions" developer "based on high-end sequestration carbon credits". It founded the Organization for Biodiversity Certificates (OBC) and in 2023 it joined with the French private equity firm Ardian, which manages US$164 billion in assets, to establish the Averrhoa Nature-Based Solutions Fund - with the objective of deploying 1.5 billion euros into forest carbon projects. For this project aDryada is negotiating a 40 year concession with the Ivorian State "falling under the new concession instrument of the national forestry code and the national strategy for forest rehabilitation" which would grant aDryada "full management authority over the project area and would concede full rights over carbon credits".
Fruit, nut, shade, fodder and medicinal tree species
35,000
This project works with the Swiss foundation FarmStrong and over 16,000 small cocoa growers to "transition 35,000 ha of cultivated land to agroforestry" by incorporating fruit, nuts, shade and medicinal tree species on their farms in Soubre and Abengourou, Côte d'Ivoire. Payments to farmers from the sale of carbon credits will be made by FarmStrong in the form of direct payments and in-kind contributions. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into this project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
12Tree is a German-based private equity fund established in 2017 to acquire and develop sustainable farms in Latin America and Africa. Today it has 12 farms covering 20,000 ha. In 2022, it began a certification process on five of these farms for carbon credits with Verra. One of these is the 2,132 ha Ambrosia farm in the Dominican Republic, a 30-year old coconut plantation that 12Tree is rehabilitating and integrating with 800 ha of cocoa trees, making it one of the largest cocoa plantations in the world. 12Tree says the farm also has 843 ha of natural forests that will be protected. 12Tree is owned by The Renewable Resources Group (RRG), through its nature-based solutions division. RRG specialises in "monetising" water by buying up lands in parts of the world where it can get access to cheap irrigation to produce high value crops for export, like grapes and berries. It claims to have acquired over 100,000 ha of agricultural lands in Mexico, the US, Chile and Argentina, as well as private water rights in the US, Chile and Australia-- all areas where there are water scarcity issues.
Kwango River Project, Democratic Republic of Congo
DR Congo
Forêt Ressources Management Group
France
Acacia trees
25,000
This project proposes to establish "carbon sink plantations" of acacia, as well as "agroforestry" timber plantations of acacia and cassava, on 15,000 ha of savannah lands in the Batéké Plateau east of Kinshasa, DRC. The project proponent is Forêt Ressources Management (FRM) Commitment, a subsidiary of France's FRM Group, owned by Bernard Cassange - an influential forestry advisor in the Congo. Cassange's son is CEO of FRM Commitment as well as another subsidiary, KinCongo Nature Carbon Company (KNCC), which acquired 25,000 ha for this project by buying 4 concessions from the company Moulins du Congo. The carbon credits will belong to FRM Commitment and charcoal and timber to KNCC, while "the cassava produced within the framework of the agroforestry component will belong to the peasants who are voluntary participants in this component." FRM is also pursuing a 40,000 ha project in the Batéké Plateau of the Republic of the Congo with TotalEnergies.
Permaculture initiative through community participation
DR Congo
Allcot AG
Switzerland
Various tree species
9,400
This project aims to "implement permaculture activities through community participation" on 9,400 ha of public land in the region of Moba, DR Congo. The project proponent and carbon developer is Swiss-based Allcot AG while the project owner and implementor is Graine de Vie, based in Luxembourg and Belgium. Allcot AG claims to manage 250 projects in Latin America and Africa, and it trades carbon through its subsidiary Allcot Trading. According to Spanish and Swiss media reports, the founder and CEO of Allcot, Alexis Ludwig Leroy of France, is under investigation by authorities in Liechtenstein for money laundering and was indicted by a Spanish court for suspected connections to the financial network behind the "queen of cocaine" Ana María Cameno. Allcot is also pursuing a controversial 86,000 ha carbon tree plantation project in Côte d'Ivoire. Frédéric Debouche, founder of Graine de Vie, is a notary who has established over 400 "community tree nurseries" operating primarily in mangrove reforestation in seven countries in Africa, including in Madagascar where its plantations have been destroyed by fires.
This project will plant "20 tree species" on 10,565 ha of land near Kenge in Kwango province, DR Congo. The project is funded by the Belgian retail giant, the Colruyt Group, on land that it has acquired through its local subsidiary on a 25-year concession in exchange for building a bridge, cassava mills for the local villages, two schools and a medical center. Colruyt says it will hire 12 guards to prevent locals from accessing the lands and potentially burning the trees with their traditional "slash and burn" agriculture.
This project will plant pine and other tree species on 563 ha of land around the San Pablo Lake Watershed of Peru. It is funded by the Swiss retailer Coop and is designed to offset emissions from its sales of cut flowers, which are supplied by small farms in the area. The Swiss carbon consultancy South Pole is managing the project, the Ecuadorian company Natura Plus is implementing it, and WWF Switzerland is managing the Coop's "insetting project portfolio". Most of the small holder farmers enrolled in the project cultivate flowers for export. They will not be paid for the sequestration of carbon but will benefit once, after 30 years, they can harvest the trees and sell the wood.
This project will work with small farmers to plant rows of timber and fuelwood species intercropped with fruit trees on lands belonging to these farmers that "have been severely degraded due to industrial agricultural processes" in 7 municipalities located south of the Chalatenango Department in El Salvador. The project will start with an initial 200 ha and eventually cover an area of 79,600 ha. The project, led by the Dutch foundation Cordaid (ICCO), "only works with farmers that own the land they cultivate, due to the requirement for farmers to take care of their trees over many decades". The Canadian company Taking Root will train the participating farmers on how to use the FARM-TRACE mobile app, which uses satellite imagery and "ground information to get an overview of parcel location, their carbon content, and productivity". Cordaid will cover the costs of seeds, farmer training, seedling maintenance, and certification costs until the first carbon credits are sold and payments are made to farmers.
Ecosystem restoration and agroforestry by landless and smallholder farmers in Tigray
Ethiopia
Climate Lab
Belgium
Various tree species
11,176
This project will work with local communities to plant native species of trees in the North Ethiopian Highlands of Tigray, around the districts of Dogu'a Tembien and Kola Tembien. The project area includes 11,176 ha of "community forest patches" and "smallholder farmer agroforestry plots" that are owned under individual land titles and managed by local farmers. The project is coordinated by the Belgian carbon project developer and broker Climate Lab.
Small scale community-based afforestation program in Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Menschen für Menschen
Switzerland
Multipurpose trees
510
This project, led by the Swiss foundation Menschen für Menschen, will engage small farmers to plant trees on 510 ha of their lands in the South Wollo Zone of Amhara National Regional State, Ethiopia. The foundation says it already planted a million trees in Ethiopia by the end of 2022, and now wants to plant 1.2 million more through this agroforestry project. People can purchase carbon credits generated by the project on the foundation's website.
In early 2024, the Swiss-based company ASC Impact announced it had acquired 22,000 ha of land in Ethiopia's remote Gambela state along the border with South Sudan for large-scale tree plantations, carbon credits and agriculture. Anywaa Survival Organisation says the targeted land belongs to the Nyikani sub-clan of the Anywaa Indigenous People and that it is a land rich in fish stocks, rare and protected trees and fertile arable land that people use for farming, hunting, grazing, and fishing grounds. It fears the project will spark a violent land conflict. ASC Impact is reported to be in negotiations for another 300,000 ha in Ethiopia, and it has also acquired concessions for tree plantation projects in the Republic of the Congo and Angola. The company, owned by Austria's Kirchmayer family, was previously focused on acquiring farmland in Eastern Europe. In Africa, it is partnering with EcoNetix, a company founded by an Austrian businessman who claims to be a "Senior Advisor to H.E. The President of Uganda" and which describes itself as "Africa's billion dollar carbon credit portfolio", and with Dubai-based businessman Sulaiman Al Fahim, who has close ties with the Abu Dhabi royal family. The companies, through a joint initiative called Sustain Now, say they will market 60 million tons of carbon credits by 2030 to UAE buyers and claim to have mangrove and tree plantation projects in the "pipeline" covering over 800,000 ha in Guinea Bissau, Papa New Guinea, Malaysia, Indonesia and Côte d'Ivoire.
Leconi Agroforestry Project in Haut-Ogooue (LAPHO)
Gabon
Equitane Group
UAE
Eucalyptus trees
83,546
The project proponent, Sequoia Plantation, intends to establish eucalyptus plantations on three "farms" covering 83,546 ha of savannah lands in the Batéké Plateau of Haut-Ogooué, Gabon. The lands, in the departments of Djouori-Agnili (Souba) and Mpassa, will be bought or leased by the company for a period of 20 years, with option to renew for 10 years. Sequoia says that the "current land use is extensive agriculture or cattle grazing" by local communities. The local communities have denounced the project and say they will never accept it on their lands. The carbon credits will be marketed by the French company AERA Group, the "largest primary seller of voluntary carbon credits in Africa". Sequoia Plantation is owned by the Abu Dhabi conglomerate, Equitane Group (formerly Africa Transformation and Industrialization Fund), which was established by a former executive of the agribusiness corporation Olam. It is closely associated with ARISE, a fund jointly owned with the Africa Finance Corporation that builds export processing zones in West and Central Africa for commodities like wood, palm oil and cashews. Over the next decade, Sequoia Plantation intends to have 200,000 ha of large-scale tree plantations with carbon offset components in Togo, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo.
This project is planting bamboo on 2,863 ha in the Bandai Hills Forest Reserve within the Ashanti Region of Ghana. This is located near another 7,800 ha bamboo plantation proposed by US-based EcoPlanet, the proponent of this project. EcoPlanet says it has secured leases for 120 sections of the forest reserve through a public-private partnership with the Ghana Forestry Commission, under a World Bank supported programme. It has identified "opportunistic illegal farming" and Fulani herdsmen as project risks. These are key dry season grazing areas for nomadic Fulani herdsmen, who are already restrained in their mobility by other land grabbing activities in the country. EcoPlanet says it will deploy security patrols "to deter cattle grazing and maintain their movement to roads" and it will "build permanent water stations for cattle outside of the project area". The project could exacerbate already tense farmer-herder relations in the country and the region. EcoPlanet is the largest owner of commercial bamboo plantations globally, with operations in South America, Africa and Asia.
This project intends to plant bamboo on 7,818 ha of the Bandai Hills Forest Reserve within the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The project proponent, US-based EcoPlanet, is pursuing another 2,800 ha bamboo plantation nearby. EcoPlanet says it has secured leases for 120 sections of the forest reserve through a public-private partnership with the Ghana Forestry Commission, under a World Bank supported programme. It has identified "opportunistic illegal farming" and Fulani herdsmen as project risks. These are key dry season grazing areas for nomadic Fulani herdsmen, who are already restrained in their mobility by other land grabbing activities in the country. EcoPlanet says it will deploy security patrols "to deter cattle grazing and maintain their movement to roads" and it will "build permanent water stations for cattle outside of the project area". The project could exacerbate already tense farmer-herder relations in the country and the region. EcoPlanet is the largest owner of commercial bamboo plantations globally, with operations in South America, Africa and Asia.
This project works with Ghana's Ministry of Food and Agriculture and GIZ under the Competitive Cashew initiative to support 13,800 small scale cashew farmers to adopt agroforestry by integrating mango, moringa and other crops on 32,107 ha of their farms in Kintampo, Techiman, Wenchi, Bole, and Sawla districts. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into this project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
JOil is a Singapore-based company that is developing jatropha production in Ghana for biofuels. In 2012, it acquired a 50-year, 6,540 ha lease from the local chiefdoms (Kadua Stool and Yeji Stool) of the Pru District Assembly of the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. In this project, JOil is working with the Swiss carbon consultancy, South Pole, to generate carbon credits through the cultivation of jatropha on 3,994 ha of its leased area. All rights to the carbon credits generated by the project will be held by JOil, which intends to use the revenue to support its plans to expand to 20,000 ha.
The project will generate carbon credits by planting cocoa and other plant species on 100,000 hectares of "degraded lands" in the Kwahu area in Ghana's Eastern Region, starting at the end of 2023. The project is implemented by Singapore-based AJA Climate Solutions under an agreement with GenZero, an investment platform owned by Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek. GenZero says it is committing around US$30 million to the project. The credits will be traded to Singapore companies under a bilateral Implementation Agreement between Singapore and Ghana that was signed at COP27. Under Singapore's carbon tax laws, companies can offset 5 per cent of their taxable emissions with carbon credits.
REFORESTATION OF DEGRADED FOREST RESERVE AREAS IN GHANA, WEST AFRICA
Ghana
Miro Forestry
UK
Eucalyptus and teak trees
14,000
This project intends to plant eucalyptus and teak on 14,000 ha of forest reserves under lease agreements with "traditional landowners" and the Forestry Commission of Ghana, in the Boumfoum, Chirimfa and Awura Forest Reserves. The project proponent is Miro Forestry Development, a private equity backed forest investment company registered in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in the UK. Miro has received funds from development banks from the UK, Netherlands, Finland and Canada, as well as the controversial Arbaro Fund. Various farmers and pastoralists use these reserves, which Miro refers to as "illegal migrant settler farmers who have encroached upon the reserve". There have been serious concerns of Miro's timber production activities in Ghana where the communities say their lands were taken without consultation. Miro states that landowners will be entitled to 6% of the standing tree value, the Forestry Commission and the local community to 2% each, while Miro will accrue 90% of the standing value as well as own the carbon rights and revenues.
Community Restoration of Native Ecosystems in Ghana
Ghana
3T
Singapore
Various tree species
50,000
This project aims to plant "native and non-invasive" tree species on 50,000 ha of "degraded communal lands or forest reserves" in Ghana. The project proponents are Singapore-based 3T, jointly with US-based climate finance consultants Climate Investment Partners. 3T's strategy is to use satellite data and "on-the-ground land hunts" to search for project sites and develop carbon credits by planting trees. In Ghana, they define the project area as "communal lands that are not currently under any active management, but which are periodically burned while hunting, or degraded forest reserves that the Ghanaian government does not generally have the resources to protect and restore themselves". The 3T team is led by a young Japanese reforestation entrepreneur, and includes the former CFO of the Forestry Commission of Ghana. According to the project proponents, they will lease land with "private landowners", whom they identify as "a community represented by a chief", or public land managed by the Forestry Commission of Ghana.
This project will establish teak tree plantations on 3,010 ha within the Kwamisa Forest Reserve. The project area is part of a larger set of concessions acquired by members of the Private Afforestation Developers Organisation (PADO) as part of a government programme to afforest the area. So far, the individual plantation owners within PADO have planted over 7,000 ha with teak, and, under this project, they will plant teak on almost all of the remaining compartments. PADO's representative in the project is Ghanian businessman, traditional chief and farmer George Asamoah Amankwah. The companies behind the carbon crediting scheme for the project are Indian "environmental commodities" trading company VSK & Co and the UK-based ClimeTrek, which is led by a former Indian executive from the energy and marine fuels sector, Capt. D.K Balian. The companies say that local communities will benefit by being able to plant and harvest crops intercropped with the teak trees during the initial years.
12Tree is a German-based private equity fund established in 2017 to acquire and develop sustainable farms in Latin America and Africa. Today it has 12 farms covering 20,000 ha. In 2022, it began a certification process on five of these farms for carbon credits with Verra. One of those farms is the 4,751 ha Chimelb farm in Lanquín, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. The farm has 250 ha under cacao, coffee, rubber and cardamom and 2,300 hectares of protected natural forest. 12Tree is owned by The Renewable Resources Group (RRG), through its nature-based solutions division. RRG specialises in "monetising" water by buying up lands in parts of the world where it can get access to cheap irrigation to produce high value crops for export, like grapes and berries. It claims to have acquired over 100,000 ha of agricultural lands in Mexico, the US, Chile and Argentina, as well as private water rights in the US, Chile and Australia— all areas where there are water scarcity issues.
This project will work with local communities to plant a mix of "native trees" on around 550 ha of "degraded lands" in the department of Petén, Guatemala. The project proponent is the Italian tree planting NGO zeroCO2. It says, through the promotion of tree planting for "new forests" and agroforestry systems, the project will stop small farmers from expanding into forests or selling their lands to agribusiness companies for large-scale cultivation of oil palms and soybeans. The project will be funded through sales of carbon credits by zeroCO2 to its corporate partners, which include Carrefour, DHL and Volkswagen. Its local partner is the Guatemalan tree nursery company Vivero Mundo Verde.
This project aims to plant various native species on 6,000 ha of private farmlands that are no longer used for cultivation because of low soil fertility in 100 villages of Beyla prefecture, Guinea. The project proponents are Swiss-based Fondation arboRise and French carbon developers EcoAct. The local NGO Guinée Développement Rural et Environnement (GUIDRE) will implement the project by enlisting 100 village chiefs and 2,000 families to plant and maintain the trees. These families will transfer carbon rights to arboRise in exchange for an annual compensation. EcoAct has developed over 400 projects globally, and its corporate clients include supermarket chain Carrefour, Coca-Cola, Chanel, L'Oreal, Deutsche Bank and Compass Group. The founder of arboRise has now formed another organisation, ZeroCarb, that provides GHG emissions reduction services to small and medium sized companies, and connects them to arboRise for offsets.
Ecosystem restoration and rehabilitation in degraded savannas
in Mosquitia, Honduras
Honduras
Paskaia
Sweden
Hardwood trees
500,000
This project will plant tropical hardwood trees on degraded pine savannahs on 500,000 ha in Mosquitia, Honduras. The project will take place within 13 territorial councils of the Indigenous Miskito People that were formally given collective titles in 2015 that are currently being transformed into individual titles. The project proponent, a newly formed Swedish company called Paskaia, says that the planting of hardwood trees for carbon credits and timber will provide livelihoods as a substitute to traditional swidden agriculture which can no longer be effectively practiced in the area because of "population pressure" and "the ongoing process of changes in land tenure in the territorial councils from collective to individual title".
This project works with the Dutch NGO Solidaridad and the Instituto Hondureño del Café to support 3,932 small agroforestry coffee growers to plant trees on 5,233 ha of their own farms in Honduras. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into the Acorn project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
Strengthening rural livelihood through carbon finance: Agroforestry practices in Lucknow Forest Circle of Uttar Pradesh
India
The Energy and Resources Institute
India
Mucalyptus, poplar, teak, guava and mango trees
2,850
This project aims to plant eucalyptus, poplar, teak, guava and mango on a total of 2,858 ha of agricultural land belonging to 2,850 small scale farmers in the Lucknow Forest Circle, Uttar Pradesh, India. The project proponent is the Uttar Pradesh Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. It is claimed that the carbon credit revenues will be accrued by the farmers through the Conservator of the Lucknow Forest Circle. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is responsible for the carbon development aspects of the project.
Core CarbonX Solutions Private Limited is a leading promoter and developer of carbon offset projects in India. This project in Andhra Pradesh will plant various tree species on 111,980 ha of fallow agricultural lands that have "been left uncultivated for a long period of time" and that belong to private landowners. Fallow lands, however, are an increasingly important agricultural resource in Andhra Pradesh for dealing with climate change. Under the terms of agreement between the company and the landowning farmers, the farmers will plant and maintain the trees and receive 60% of the profits from the sale of carbon credits.
This project works with the Indian NGO Accion Fraterna Ecology Centre to "transition" 6,715 small farmers to agroforestry by planting "border tree species" on 8,421 ha of their farms in Anantapur and Satya Sai districts of Andhra Pradesh, India. 10% of the revenue from the sale of carbon credits will go to Accion Fraterna, 10% to Rabobank and 80% will go to farmers in direct payments. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into this project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
This project will establish commercial bamboo plantations on an initial 6,620 ha of "degraded or degrading lands" belonging to villagers in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. The project proponent OYU Green says it has agreements with landowners for the plantation of bamboo and the transfer of the carbon credits. OYU Green is an US/Indian carbon developer that is owned by the Shri Maa Group, one of India's largest trading houses.
This project will enrol 14,000 farmers to plant fruit bearing and timber trees on around 31,984 ha of their lands in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The project will be implemented by the Indian company GKF Agroforestry and farmers will give it exclusive rights to the carbon credits generated. These will then be transferred to the project developer, the UK-based company ClimeTrek Limited, which will sell the credits. The farmers retain control over the harvests from the trees, and will get an unspecified share of the profits from the sale of the carbon credits. ClimeTrek was founded by a former Indian executive from the energy and marine fuels sector, Capt. D.K Balian.
This project will plant trees for silk production on 3,000 ha of "degraded" or "fallow" lands owned by farmers in West Bengal, India. It will involve 4,000 households in 117 villages, grouped into two clusters. The villagers will sign agreements to have trees planted on their lands and to transfer the carbon rights to Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), an Indian NGO implementing the project on behalf of the project proponent Livelihoods Fund SICAV SIF. This Luxembourg-based company is a fund of Livelihoods Funds, a French private equity firm. It was founded by Unilever and Danone executives and claims to have financed the development of 80,000 ha of carbon tree plantations since 2011 on behalf of corporate investors like Danone, Crédit Agricole S.A., Michelin, Hermès and Mars Inc. PRADAN does not mention a carbon credit generation component in the description of the project on its website.
Strengthening rural livelihood through carbon finance to agroforestry practices in Saharanpur Forest Circle of Uttar Pradesh
India
The Energy and Resources Institute
India
Eucalyptus, poplar, teak, guava and mango trees
8,000
This project aims to plant eucalyptus, poplar, teak, guava and mango on a total of 8,000 ha of agricultural land belonging to 8,000 small scale farmers in the Saharanpur Forest Circle, Uttar Pradesh, India. The project proponent is the Uttar Pradesh Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. It is claimed that the carbon credit revenues will be accrued by the farmers through the Conservator of the Saharanpur Forest Circle. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is responsible for the carbon development aspects of the project.
Expanding Green Cover though afforestation in the Himalayan Region of Uttarakhand through communities-leading towards ownership and sustainability
India
VNV Advisory Services
Singapore
Various tree species
4,000
The objective of this project is to plant 4 million trees on 4,000 ha of "degraded Van Panchayat forests" and private lands across 160 villages in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. VNV Advisory Services is the project proponent and the Indian NGO Aarohi is the implementing partner. They say they have signed "No Objection Certificates" with the local panchayats that gives them the carbon rights to the land. They also say the benefit sharing mechanisms will be transparent and that they will only deduct costs from the sales of carbon credits to cover operational and project development costs. Livestock grazing is likely to be displaced as the planted areas will be fenced and patrolled. VNV is a Singapore-based consulting company that claims to have impacted 2 million ha and over 6 million rural households in 17 countries in South Asia. Aarohi's partners include Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, Tata Trusts and the The Hans Foundation.
Landscape-based approach towards the revitalization of degraded agro-ecology for livelihood generation of marginalized communities
India
Urvara Krsi
India
Eucalyptus trees
13,255
This project will establish eucalyptus plantations on 13,255 ha in the districts of Amravati, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Nagpur, Wardha, Yavatmal in Maharashtra and the districts of Koraput and Nabarangpur in Odisha. The company implementing the project is Urvara Krsi Private Limited (UKPL) - an Indian agricultural consultancy that took over Advanta Agritech, the tree plantation division of Indian pulp and paper corporation BILT (Advanta Group), in 2019. Its partner in the project is IORA Ecological Solutions Pvt. Ltd, an Indian environmental advisory company that claims to have generated 18 million carbon credits. UKPL will identify and enrol farmers in the project. The farmers will sign an agreement giving UKPL "overall control and responsibility for the agroforestry project" on their lands, while "revenues generated from this carbon offset will be shared to the stakeholders as decided by the UKPL management".
This project intends to develop mahogany plantations with thousands of small holders on a total of 15,000 ha across five states in India. The project proponent, Mahogani Vishwa Agro Private Limited, recently merged into a joint venture with India's Mitcon Group, called Mitcon Nature Based Solution Ltd. The project will pursue contract cultivation models with farmers and/or farmer groups, with Mitcon holding the carbon rights and legal rights over the trees, which it buys from the farmers at harvest. The Mitcon Group is a diversified Indian consultancy firm that has also recently formed a digital agriculture subsidiary, Planeteye Farm-AI.
This project works with the Indian company VEDA Climate Change Solutions Ltd and "over 1500 poverty-stricken smallholder sweet lime and mango farmers" to "transition" 1000 ha of their land to agroforestry by planting fruit, medicinal and shade trees on their farms in Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh, India. 10% of the revenue from the sale of carbon credits will go to VEDA, 10% to Rabobank and the remaining 80% will go to farmers in direct payments. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into this project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
Trees For Livelihoods: Agroforestry In Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, India
India
VNV Advisory Services
Singapore
Various tree species
5,000
This project proposes to plant "farmer-friendly trees" on 5,000 ha in Uttar Pradesh, India. The project proponents are Singapore-based VNV Advisory Services and India-based Sustainable Green Initiative (SGI). The companies say "carbon waiver forms" will be signed with participating landowners or communities to transfer carbon rights to VNV and SGI. VNV is a private sustainability consulting company that claims to have impacted 2 million ha and over 6 million rural households in 17 countries in South Asia. SGI specializes in "planting fruit trees to fight hunger, poverty, climate change" and partners with the US tree planting charity One Tree Planted.
AFFORESTATION AND BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION PROJECT IN WEST BENGAL
India
Aavishkaar Group
India
Fruit. medicinal and timber trees
5,000
This project will engage farmers to plant trees yielding fruits and medicinal extracts and timber plantations on an initial 5,000 ha of fallow lands belonging to these farmers in the North Bengal region of West Bengal, India. Farmers sign an agreement to plant and maintain the trees on their lands and get a "portion of carbon credits" in return. The company behind the project is the Aavishkaar Group, through its subsidiaries Intellecap (a "global impact advisory firm" backed by FMO, Shell Foundation, Triodos Bank and TIAA-CREF) and Aavishkaar Venture Management Services (a financial company with more than US$500 million in assets under management across India, South Asia, South-east Asia and Africa).
ENHANCING LIVELIHOOD OF TRIBAL COMMUNITIES THROUGH AGROFORESTRY IN SOUTH INDIA
India
Varaha ClimateAg
India
Mango, coffee, silver oak, teak, jackfruit, cashew, and other tree
7,500
This project proposes to initially plant mango, coffee, silver oak, teak, jackfruit, cashew, and other tree species on 7,500 ha of "agriculture land, and barren land parcels owned by tribal and marginalized farmer communities" involving 354 villages in Alluri Sitarama Raju, Andhra Pradesh, India. The proponent, Varaha ClimateAg Pvt Ltd., says agreements with villagers give it exclusive rights to "generate credits from the specified farmland". Varaha is a "climate tech startup" whose founders have backgrounds in tech startups working with Bayer, Monsanto, Covance, and Genentech. They say they are implementing carbon projects on over 250,000 ha of land across India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Kenya "to accelerate Agricultural Decarbonization". In early 2024, they announced that they had raised US$8.7 million from Omnivore, Orios Venture Partners and the Norinchukin Bank of Japan.
Agroforestry Initiative through carbon finance to strengthen rural livelihoods and ecosystems in India
India
Carbisure Tech
India
Timber and fruit trees
10,000
The project proposes to plant fast-growing timber and fruit trees on 10,000 ha of privately owned farmland in India. The project proponent is Indian carbon offset developer EarthOnly (owned by Carbisure Tech Pvt Ltd), which is based out of a start-up workshare space in New Delhi. It says it has secured the carbon rights from landowners, and claims that it will revenue share from the sale of carbon credits with them, although it is not clear what the terms of the agreements are.
This project consists in planting various tree species such as commercial and fruit-bearing trees on fallow land of individual farmland owners or tenants across all districts of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu in India. Initially, 198,235 ha of land have been selected, where Core CarbonX Solutions Private Limited (CCX) has developed carbon offset agreements with individual farmers. Farmers will plant the trees and agree to transfer the carbon rights to CCX. The profit is then shared between CCX and the farmers on a 40:60 basis. CCX claims to have been involved in 100 emission reduction projects across 12 countries in Asia and Africa.
Generation of Livelihoodsthrough development of Orchards in Jharkhand
India
Cordaid
Netherlands
Forest and fruit trees
4,000
This project will create carbon sinks by establishing plantations of forest and fruit-bearing trees on 4000 ha of fallow lands in the districts of Ranchi, Khunti, Gumla, Saraikela, Sahebganj and Pakur, Jharkhand State, India. The lands included in the project are privately owned by small farmers and "largely remain fallow for most parts of the year except small scale cultivation of millets in Rabi (October - November) season". The project is being coordinated by the Fair Climate Fund, a subsidiary of Cordaid of the Netherlands, and its local NGO partner Sarva Seva Samity Sanstha. All rights to the carbon generated by the project will be transferred to the project coordinators through agreements with the participating farmers.
Core CarbonX Solutions Private Limited is a leading promoter and developer of carbon offset projects in India. This project in the semi-arid state of Jharkhand will plant various tree species on 19,828 ha of identified "barren" agricultural land through agreements with individual landowning farmers. The farmers will plant and maintain the trees and receive 60% of the profits from the sale of carbon credits.
This project aims to plant "fruit timber species" on 5,000 ha of fallow lands that were "lying unutilised for decades" in Jharkhand, India. The project is implemented on individual private holdings of 0.2 to 1 ha across 200 villages. Participating farmers have signed "Farmer Agreements" to transfer carbon credit rights to the proponents, Intellecap Advisory Services Pvt Ltd and Transform Rural India (TRI). Intellecap is part of the Aavishkaar Group, a "global impact advisory firm" - working in consulting, investment banking and networking - and is funded by FMO, Shell Foundation, Triodos Bank and TIAA-CREF. TRI is an Indian NGO focusing on rural transformation, financed by foundations such as Tata trusts and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Core CarbonX Solutions Private Limited is a leading promoter and developer of carbon offset projects in India. This project in the state of Odisha will plant various tree species on 53,051 ha of fallow agricultural land through agreements with individual landowning farmers. The farmers will plant and maintain the trees and receive 60% of the profits from the sale of carbon credits.
Strengthening rural livelihoods of smallholder farmers in tribal districts of Odisha,India
India
Fair Climate Fund
Netherlands
Fruit and other trees
4,180
This project intends to plant forest and fruit trees on 4,180 ha of private agricultural "barren uplands" impacting 8,000 households in Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj, India. The project proponent is Indian NGO, the Society for Harmonious Renaissance of Simple Technological Initiatives (SHRISTI), and the carbon developer is the Indian branch of the Dutch-based carbon management company, Fair Climate Fund, which is owned by Cordaid. The land will be cleared and fenced by SHRISTI, while participating famers plant the trees and sign an agreement to transfer carbon rights to SHRISTI who in turn transfers to the "exclusive carbon trading rights" to Fair Climate Fund.
Empowering communities, Enriching private and community lands in Rural Odisha
India
Cordaid
Netherlands
Mango, cashew, litchi and jackfruit trees
3,561
This project will work with local communities to plant trees on 3,561 ha in the districts of Gajapati, Ganjam, Kalahandi and Kandhamal in Odisha State, India. It involves the planting of mango, cashew, litchi, and jackfruit trees for "agroforestry plantations" on privately owned land with constituted "Farmer Producer Groups" and the planting of native trees in "social-forestry plantations" on gram panchayat/community lands identified by the local communities. The project is being coordinated by the Fair Climate Fund, a subsidiary of Cordaid of the Netherlands, and its local NGO partner Gram Vikas. Participating farmers and communities will sign a carbon rights agreement to "relinquish any potential claim to the carbon credits generated by the project". Under this agreement, a "certain percentage of the revenue generated from the sale of carbon credits will flow back to the beneficiaries".
AGROFORESTRY PLANTATIONS TO ENHANCE THE LIVELIHOOD OF RURAL COMMUNITIES IN INDIA
India
ClimeTrek
UK
Various tree species
800
This project proposes to plant various tree species on an initial 800 ha of land "with no tree cover" across 14 states in India. The proponents are India's IICare Foundation and UK-based Infinite Solutions, now ClimeTrek. They say they have signed carbon agreements with land holders and gram panchayats for transferring the carbon credit rights to IICare.
This project works with the Indian "environmental advisory firm" IORA Ecological Solutions and the Meghalaya Basin Development Authority to support 79 small farmers to plant timber trees among their cash crops (mainly turmeric, maize, and ginger)s on 135 ha of their farms in Meghalaya, India. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into this project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
RESTORATION OF DEGRADED LAND TO ENHANCE TREE COVER AND IMPROVE LIVELIHOODS OF FARMERS IN INDIA
India
Cordaid
Netherlands
Fruit trees
181
This project aims to plant various fruit-bearing trees on 181 ha of common and individual farmlands in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, India. The project proponent is Pernod Ricard India Foundation, a subsidiary of French multinational alcohol-beverage company Pernod Ricard SA, while the carbon developer is the Indian branch of the Dutch-based carbon management company, Fair Climate Fund, which is owned by Cordaid. Through its foundation, Pernod Ricard, which is facing anti-trust allegations in India, has signed a $2 billion "sustainability" loan and invests in various water and carbon offsetting projects in India.
Core CarbonX Solutions Private Limited is a leading promoter and developer of carbon offset projects in India. This project in the state of Odisha is planting various tree species on 63,000 ha of fallow agricultural lands through agreements with individual landowning farmers. The farmers will plant and maintain the trees and receive 60% of the profits from the sale of carbon credits.
MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENHANCING RURAL LIVELIHOODS THROUGH PLANTATIONS RAISED TO PROVIDE RAW MATERIAL TO THE PAPER INDUSTRY
India
JK Paper
India
Eucalyptus, pine and wild tamarind trees
2,800
The project aims to plant eucalyptus, pine and wild tamarind trees as timber-producing species on 2,800 ha of a total of 13,000 ha of "vacant", "degraded/fallow farmlands" and "lands under subsistence agriculture/non-remunerative agriculture" belonging to "small and marginal farmers" in three states in India. India-based VEDA Climate Change Solutions (VCCSL) is the project proponent and JK Paper Ltd is the project partner. They say that the "farmers' equity contribution is in the form of land and labor supplies" and that "the farmers own wood and non-wood products produced" and "have legal right to harvest and sell the wood products and also benefit from the revenue generated through the sale of emission reductions". Farmers will also "contribute their savings as investments in the plantation activities", and will sell wood to JK Paper Ltd. JK Paper is a subsidiary of the JK Group - an Indian industrial conglomerate run by the Singhania family.
This project aims to promote silk production "by utilizing privately owned degraded lands that tribal farmers do not utilize for productive purposes". It proposes to plant various silk host trees species on 2,000 ha in Jharkhand and West Bengal, India, involving 3,000 households in 125 villages. The project is implemented by Cognisphere Solutions Ltd, a spin-off of Indian NGO Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), with project development and investments from German-based ClimatePartner Impact GmbH. The companies say they will measure and cross-verify land ownership with cadastral maps, bringing in surveyors to sort out the division of lands within families, and then sign agreements with the farmers committing them to planting and maintaining the trees for 20 years and giving rights to the carbon to ClimatePartner in exchange for "upfront investments and livelihood support."
This project aims to plant hardwood, medicinal and horticulture tree species on 2,000 ha of "private lands which are no longer used by their owners for cultivation due to their low soil fertility". The project will be carried out by 1,000 smallholder farmers in West Bengal, India who will own the trees and harvest, while agreeing to transfer carbon rights through a "participation agreement" to the project proponent, Tomorrow's Foundation (TF). TF is an Indian NGO founded by businessmen Arup Gosh and Swarup Gosh, who have established numerous "social enterprises" in fashion, banking and rural development. French carbon developer, EcoAct, is responsible for designing the project. It has developed over 400 projects globally, and its corporate clients include Carrefour, Coca-cola, Chanel, L'Oreal, Deutsche Bank and Compass Group.
This project will plant 60 million "farmer-friendly" trees for timber, fruit, fodder in 9 districts of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, covering around 24,000 ha. The proponent, VNV Advisory Services, will sign contracts with participating farmers and communities detailing the number of trees that will be planted and how they must be maintained by the farmers and giving the company the carbon rights to the land. VNV is a Singapore-based consulting company that claims to have impacted 2 million ha and over 6 million rural households in 17 countries in South Asia. Its partner in the project is Mumbai-based financial company IMPCA Services Private Ltd..
https://impca.in/our-work/
Hectare figure is based on estimate of 2,500 trees/ha provided in the Verra project description
Restoration of barren uplands of vulnerable communities in West Bengal and Jharkhand
India
Cordaid
Netherlands
Mango and timber trees
4,000
This project will establish intensive plantations of mango and timber trees on 4,000 ha of "barren uplands" owned by 15,000 small holder farmers in Dumka, Jharkhand and Birbhum, West Bengal in India. The project is undertaken by the Fair Climate Fund, a subsidiary of Cordaid of the Netherlands, and its local NGO partner Rajarhat PRASARI.
Core CarbonX Solutions Private Limited is a leading promoter and developer of carbon offset projects in India. This project in the semi-arid state of Jharkhand will plant various tree species on 20,320 ha of identified "barren" agricultural land through agreements with individual landowning farmers. The farmers will plant and maintain the trees and receive 60% of the profits from the sale of carbon credits.
This project will plant oak trees on 500 ha of "degraded forest lands" in Uttarakhand, India. The lands are community forest areas (Van Panchayat) that are not allowed for agriculture but used for grazing livestock. The project is being led by VNV Advisory Services of Singapore and the Central Himalayan Environment Association, which will receive the funds from the sale of carbon credits and use them to fund the project. VNV is a consulting company that claims to have impacted 2mn ha and over 6 million rural households in 17 countries in South Asia.
This project will plant coffee and other tree species on 6,825 ha of "abandoned croplands and barren lands" farmed by "tribal communities" in the Araku Valley, Vishakhapatnam district, Andhra Pradesh, India. According to the proponent, CropZone Agro Forestry Pvt Ltd, these lands have been in part abandoned "due to investment constraints leading to degradation". CropZone has signed individual contracts with farmers outlining CropZone's "complete right over carbon credits" with possible carbon credit sharing agreements. This project is similar to several other coffee development projects in the valley led by foreign and Indian corporate industry coalitions such as the Naandi Foundation, the Livelihoods Fund and Mahindra Group.
Strengthening rural livelihood through carbon finance: Agroforestry practices in Bareilly Forest Circle of Uttar Pradesh
India
VNV Advisory Services
Singapore
Eucalyptus, poplar, teak, guava and mango trees
3,481
This project will enlist 4500 farmers in five divisions of Bareilly Forest Circle of Uttar Pradesh, India to establish "agroforestry plantations" of eucalyptus, poplar, teak, guava and mango trees on their own lands, covering a total of 3,481 ha. The project is being implemented by the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department with support of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). All carbon credits generated by the project will be issued to India's VNV Advisory Services, which is responsible for selling the credits and transferring the "financial benefits" to the farmers. VNV is a Singapore-based consulting company that claims to have impacted 2 million ha and over 6 million rural households in 17 countries in South Asia.
Strengthening rural livelihood through carbon finance: Agroforestry practices in Gorakhpur Forest Circle of Uttar Pradesh
India
VNV Advisory Services
Singapore
Eucalyptus, teak, mango, guava, and mahogany trees
1,912
This project will engage farmers to plant eucalyptus, teak, mango, guava, and mahogany trees on 1912 ha of their lands in four districts of the Gorakhpur Forest Circle of Uttar Pradesh. The project will be implemented by the Uttar Pradesh Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in partnership with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and VNV Advisors. VNV is a Singapore-based consulting company that claims to have impacted 2 million ha and over 6 million rural households in 17 countries in South Asia.
CLIMATE SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH HORTICULTURE PROJECT IN INDIA
India
Tata Group
India
Horticultural tree species
300
This project aims to plant various "commercial" and horticultural species on 300 ha of "degraded and fallow land" belonging to small farmers in the state of Maharashtra, India. The project proponent is Tata Communications Limited, which is part of Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate. The implementing entity is the Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CINI), an associate organisation of Tata Trusts (the Tata family's philanthropic arm). The project description submitted to Verra does not clarify what the carbon revenue sharing agreements are though it says "the individual farmers were asked to formalize the relationship with the project proponent by entering into a carbon offset agreement. They were told that the project activity would result in generation of income for their livelihoods by selling the fruits."
Grouped project for reforestation on degraded and non-forest lands
India
EKI Energy Services Limited
India
Various tree species
1,000
This project aims to plant various tree species on several hectares of land identified as "waste" or "fallow" in India. EKI Energy Services Ltd., the proponent for this project, says several small scale plots with private landholders have already been planted. While the Verra registry states that the total project area is 1,000 ha, EKI says it has identified 17% of India's "wasteland" as scalable objectives for this project. EKI is present in 16 countries with over 3,500 clients. It claims to be the largest carbon credit developer in India and in the developing world, and is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. EKI recently entered into a joint venture with Shell Overseas investment BV to establish Amrut Nature Solution Private Limited for the development of "nature-based solutions".
Strengthening rural livelihood through carbon finance : Agroforestry practices in Meerut Forest circle of Uttar Pradesh
India
The Energy and Resources Institute
India
Eucalyptus, poplar, teak, guava and mango trees
2,807
This project aims to plant eucalyptus, poplar, teak, guava and mango on a total of 2,807 ha of agricultural land belonging to 3,000 small scale farmers in the Meerut Forest Circle, Uttar Pradesh, India. The project proponent is the Uttar Pradesh Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. According to the proponent, the carbon credit revenues will be accrued by the farmers through the Conservator of the Meerut Forest Circle. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is responsible for the carbon development aspects of the project.
CORE CARBON SERICULTURE PLANTATION IN ODISHA STATE
India
Core CarbonX Solutions
India
Various tree species
10,520
Core CarbonX Solutions Private Limited is a leading promoter and developer of carbon offset projects in India. This project in Odisha will plant various tree species on 10,520 ha of agricultural lands that have "been left uncultivated for a long period of time" and that belong to private landowners. Under the terms of the agreement between the company and the landowning farmers, the farmers will plant and maintain the trees and receive 60% of the profits from the sale of carbon credits.
This project works with the Indian company Intellecap to support 2,688 small farmers to plant fruits trees on 608 ha of their farms in Jharkhand, India. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into the Acorn project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank. Intellecap is part of the Aavishkaar Group, a "global impact advisory firm" - working in consulting, investment banking and networking - and is funded by FMO, Shell Foundation, Triodos Bank and TIAA-CREF.
This project will enrol farmers to plant oil palm trees, intercropped with cash crops, on around 1,100 ha of their lands in Nalgonda district of Telangana State, India. The project will be implemented by the Indian company Tapovanam Organic Farming Systems and farmers will give it exclusive rights to the carbon credits generated. These will then be transferred to the project developer, the UK-based company ClimeTrek Limited, which will sell the credits. The farmers retain control over the harvests from the trees and crops, and will get an unspecified share of the profits from the sale of the carbon credits. ClimeTrek was founded by a former Indian executive from the energy and marine fuels sector, Capt. D.K Balian.
Enhancing Livelihoods of Farmers in Gujarat through Agroforestry Plantations by SHBVM
India
ReNew Power
India
Timber trees
1,977
This project intends to plant various timber producing species on an initial 1,977 ha of private "agricultural land and/or degraded wastelands", involving 700 farmers in six districts in Gujarat, India. The proponents are Indian NGO Shri Hari Bhujal Vikash Mandal (SHBVM) and ReNew Energy, an Indian company created with funding from Goldman Sachs and now majority owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is the implementing partner. Farmers will be free to sell timber from the trees, but SHBVM will have the rights to the carbon credits generated, of which a portion of the sales will go to the farmers. This project aims to expand to 4,000 ha by 2025.
Since 2021, this project has been planting fruit bearing species on 1,000 ha of private smallholder farms in Mandsaur, Dhar districts of Madhya Pradesh, India. The project proponent is AadharStambh Consultancy Services Private Limited. It says it "has entered into an agreement with each land owner regarding the roles and responsibilities as well as carbon credits benefits that will be accrued upon issuance". It is not clear what the carbon benefit sharing agreements are. AadharStambh is an Indian company registered in 2021, with directors Giriraj Singh Deora and Radhe Shyam.
This project will plant trees and plants for essential oil production on up to 30,000 ha of lands classified as "wastelands, barrenlands, and shifting cultivation/slash-and-burn" in tribal communities of the Khasi, Ri Bhoi, Jaintia and Garo Hills regions, in the Northeastern state of Meghalaya, India. The main company behind the project is Earthbanc, a Swedish company that specialises in measuring carbon in soils using satellite imagery and digital platforms. Its Indian subsidiary, Earthtree, will implement the project. In December 2023, the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced that it was providing US$71 million to the project as part of its AZ Forest programme to plant and maintain over 200 million trees around the world by 2030.
This project intends to plant commercial and fruit-bearing trees, initially on 6,300 ha of fallow land of individual farmland owners or tenants in the state of Telangana, India. Core CarbonX Solutions Private Limited (CCX) has developed carbon offset agreements with individual farmers. Farmers will plant and own the trees, while they agree to transfer the carbon rights to CCX and "60% of the carbon income generated from the sale of carbon credits would be distributed among the farmers." CCX claims to have been involved in 100 emission reduction projects across 12 countries in Asia and Africa.
This project will work with around 500 local farming families to restore and plant coffee, cinnamon and other trees on 1,533 ha of "degraded grassland areas" in the Singkarak river basin of West Sumatra province, Indonesia using a technique called Assisted Natural Regeneration. The project is an expansion of an earlier project in the same area and will be implemented through farmer cooperatives. The project's parent company is CO2 Operate, a Dutch company founded by Paul Burgers that also markets carbon credits from the project, and its local partner is Rimbo Pangan Lestari. It is partially funded by the Dutch development bank FMO.
This project will convert "communal unproductive farmland and grasslands to a Moringa agroforestry food forest" where moringa trees are intercropped with shade crops and to more densely planted "Moringa farms". The project will take place on 700 ha of community and private lands used for generations in "slash-and-burn shifting agricultural systems" across 4 villages in South Buton Regency and one in the Baubau City Jurisdiction of South East Sulawesi, Indonesia. The companies behind the project are WARNA, a local Indonesian company that was until recently focused on scuba diving, and rePlanet, a newly formed company in the UK that will handle the funding and financing of the project through the sale of carbon credits. According to the companies, 60% of the funds received for the project will go to the communities in the form of "Community Development Strategies" and "Sustainable Business and Livelihood Funds", such as helping local women develop small home industries with moringa-based foods.
This project will plant 1,000 ha of agarwood trees on a section of land within a much larger avoided deforestation project covering over 142,000 ha in West Seram Region of Seram Island, Maluku, Indonesia. The main Taiwanese company behind the project is Asia Assets Developments Co, which claims, through its Samoan-registered holding company, to hold the "management/development right for 35 years on 775,832.94 hectares of forest in the Maluku Province". Its partner in this project, described as the "project proponent," is the Taiwanese electronics company Forward Electronics.
This project aims to plant eucalyptus and other trees on 45,000 ha, across thousands of micro-tree farms in Kenya for carbon sequestration and tree harvesting. Komaza Forestry, the proponent, will pay farmers at harvest, based on the volume of wood harvested at prevailing market prices. While farmers plant, grow and harvest trees and maintain land ownership, Komaza owns the trees and carbon rights. Komaza Forestry, which describes itself as the "Airbnb for forestry", is the largest forestry company in Kenya and aims to be Africa's biggest. It's parent company, Komaza Group Inc, is registered in the US tax haven of Delaware. The company received US$7.5M in equity financing from the Dutch development bank FMO. Other investors include AXA Impact Managers, Mirova's Land Degradation Neutrality Fund and Novastar Ventures.
This project will work with over 165,000 small farmers to plant trees of different species on 330,000 ha within the Upper Tana watershed in Kenya. The project is coordinated by the Upper Tana-Nairobi Water Fund Trust, a public-private partnership established by The Nature Conservancy and the US water treatment company Pentair. The project will be implemented on agricultural lands owned by small farmers or public entities. Sales of carbon credits will be delivered to farmers "in kind" to "help finance Water Fund activities in the Upper Tana".
This project works with the Dutch NGO Solidaridad and 6400 small coffee growers to "transition 3800 ha of cultivated land to agroforestry" by incorporating fruit, nut and other tree species on their lands in Bungoma, Kericho, Nandi and Trans-Nzoia counties of Kenya. 90% of the revenue generated from sales of carbon credits will go directly to participating farmers, and 10% will go to Solidaridad and 10% to Rabobank. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into their project with coffee growers in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
Fruit, nut, shade, fodder and medicinal tree species
9,527
This project works with the UK charity Farm Africa and 4,096 small farmers to "transition away from traditional subsistence practices to diverse agroforestry systems" by planting fruit, nuts, shade, fodder and medicinal tree species on 9,527 ha of their farms in Embu and Tharaka Nithi districts, Kenya. 10% of the revenue from the sale of carbon credits will go to Farm Africa and 80% will go to farmers in both direct and in-kind payments, with the remaining 10% going to Rabobank. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into this project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
This project works with the Kenyan NGO Trees for Kenya and 2,116 small farmers to "transition their degraded crop landscapes to agroforestry with the planting of diverse shade, fruit bearing, and medicinal tree species" on 9,415 ha of their lands in Embu and Tharaka Nithi districts, Kenya. 80% of the revenue from the sale of carbon credits will go to farmers in both direct payments (60%) and "in-kind in the form of planting materials" (40%). The rest will be split between Trees for Kenya and Rabobank. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into their project with coffee growers in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
This project intends to get agreements with 79,000 farmers to plant various trees species on an initial 23,747 ha around Mount Kenya National Park. The project is part of the USAID-funded International Small Group and Tree Planting Program (TIST) carried out in India, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The farmers plant trees on their land and retain ownership of the trees and their products while they grant the carbon rights to the project proponent, Clean Air Action Corporation (CAAC), under a "Carbon Credit Sale Agreement". CAAC is a US-based for-profit that is responsible for the carbon management and development of TIST. It is a subsidiary of US oil and gas pipeline company Energy Transfer, the company behind the development of the infamous Dakota Access Pipeline.
This project will plant trees on 1,150 hectares of "individually owned farmland under both woodlots and agroforestry management systems" on "land that was formerly cropland, grassland and shrubland" in Kenya's Lake Naivasha Basin. The main company behind the project is the Swiss carbon credit developer and trader South Pole, while WWF Kenya will identify the farmers and handle the project implementation. The farmers will sign 30-year agreements giving South Pole "rights to the carbon sequestered until 73,000 tCO2 emission reduction is reached".
This project intends to plant eucalyptus and pine trees for timber, as well as coffee, cacao and macadamia trees on 10,000 ha of "low productive grasslands" and "unproductive/uncultivated croplands" in Kenya. According to the project description farmers who own this land have agreed to transfer all carbon rights to the proponent, OYU GREEN Ltd, a US/Indian carbon developer that is owned by the Shri Maa Group, one of India's largest trading houses. OYU says its partners include Nestlé, Unilever, Tata, Apple, Jio and Samsung.
Essential oil crops and eucalyptus, cape chestnut, croton, cedar, sandal wood, warbugia, and prunus tree
30,500
The project will plant trees on 30,500 ha of "pastureland, rangeland, forests, wildlife, undulating landscapes" in Laikipia East and West and Kieni East and West sub-counties of Kenya. It will start with a 5,000 ha pilot project, involving 500-700 farmers who mainly grow maize and beans, and will focus on planting essential oil crops and eucalyptus, cape chestnut, croton, cedar, sandal wood, warburgia, and prunus trees. The project proponent is Horizon Business Ventures Limited, a Kenyan company set up to produce biodiesel from croton but now focuses on supplying essential oils for cosmetics. The project will supply it with essential oils. According to the company, "farmers will hold the Carbon Rights ownership while [it] will sell carbon credits on their behalf". Another partner in the project is UK businessman Alastair Clyne, who is behind a 1,000 ha carbon credit coffee and coconut plantation in the Philippines and a new carbon credit platform in Kazakhstan called Qazaq Carbon. The project is being supported by a $145,000 grant from the Netherlands' DOEN Foundation.
Hongera Reforestation Project (Mt Kenya and Aberdares)
Kenya
Dutch Green Business
Netherlands
Various tree species
11,000
This project intends to plant various tree species, including perennial nuts and fruits, on 11,000 ha of agricultural, forest or pasture land in Kenya. The project proponents, Dutch Green Business and Climate Investment Partners, plan to sign agreements giving them exclusive rights to generated carbon credits with Community Forest Associations or the state-owned Kenya Forest Service, which will be responsible for planting and the upkeep of trees. Dutch Green Business is a Dutch-based, public company traded on Euronext Amsterdam, that was founded by UK businessman John Mappin, heir to a jewellery fortune. He is a known funder of extreme rightwing political causes in the UK and the US.
This project, financed by the Italian government and the World Bank's IFC, proposes to work with smallholder farmers to plant croton as a biofuel crop on an initial 40,000 ha of "degraded landscapes" in Makueni County, Kenya. The proponent is Italian energy company Eni. It says croton is resistant to drought and suitable for planting on degraded soils, and will be grown by local farmers who will benefit economically, while providing Eni with a "renewable" feedstock for biofuel that will not contribute to deforestation or compete with food crops. The project will generate carbon credits by working with an NGO of the Anglican Church to implement "Sustainable Agricultural Land Management" on the farms. It is not clear what the contractual agreements are regarding the harvest nor whether the land will be leased. Eni says only that farmers will "willingly transfer the rights to claim, transfer and transact the emission reductions (i.e. carbon credits) generated". An investigation found that small farmers participating in the project have so far been disappointed because their harvests were particularly affected by drought, poor yields, and insufficient operational and technical support.
This project works with the Western Tree Planters Association of Kenya, Dutch non-profit Agriterra and Sweden's Vi Agroforestry to support 4,360 small farmers to transition away from planting eucalyptus monocultures to "a more sustainable system including trees for fruit, fodder and medicine" on 2,484 ha of their own farms in the western region of Kenya. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into the Acorn project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
This project works with the Asian Forest Cooperation Organization to support 4,407 small farmers to integrate the planting of trees and shrubs with their cash crops on 4,176 ha of their own farms in Kyrgyzstan. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into the Acorn project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
This project aims to initially plant eucalyptus 4,713 ha in 30 villages on lands "degraded by shifting cultivation" within a government approved area of 35,000 ha in Nakathing-Nongkapath and Phou Talava Production Forests Areas (PFA) in Laos. This is a conservation area with areas of high conservation value and riparian buffer zones. The proponent is Silvi Carbon Lao Sole Company Ltd., a Dutch carbon credit developer majority owned by the Swiss energy company VARO Energy (51%). Silvi Carbon says it will acquire rights to the land, timber and carbon in the soil by leasing lands under customary tenure or by obtaining land concessions from the government of Laos. It describes the project as "an agroforestry scheme to prevent villagers expanding their shifting cultivation into new, forested areas". It also says it will establish a Village Development Fund for each project village, based on the area of land provided to the proponent. VARO Energy owns several oil refineries in Europe and is a joint venture between international energy and commodities company Vitol and the global financial company The Carlyle Group.
This project aims to initially plant eucalyptus 4,713 ha in 30 villages on lands "degraded by shifting cultivation" within a government approved area of 35,000 ha in Nakathing-Nongkapath and Phou Talava Production Forests Areas (PFA) in Lao. This is a conservation area with areas of high conservation value and riparian buffer zones. The proponent is Silvi Carbon Lao Sole Company Ltd., a Dutch carbon credit developer majority owned by the Swiss energy company VARO Energy (51%). Silvi Carbon says it will acquire rights to the land, timber and carbon in the soil by leasing lands under customary tenure or by obtaining land concessions from the government of Laos. It describes the project as "an agroforestry scheme to prevent villagers expanding their shifting cultivation into new, forested areas". It also says it will establish a Village Development Fund for each project village, based on the area of land provided to the proponent. VARO Energy owns several oil refineries in Europe and is a joint venture between international energy and commodities company Vitol and the global financial company The Carlyle Group.
This project will produce biochar and plant rubber tress on "abandoned rubber tree plantations", spanning 245,000 ha along the Sinoe River, in Liberia. It is being implemented through a partnership between Karbon-X Corp, a Canadian company trading on the US OTC stock exchange, and a company called Revive Terra Corps. According to Karbon's website, it is initially operating on a 700 ha plantation within the Todee District of Montserrado County — an area where the main rubber plantation company is the Morris American Rubber Company.
Voa Aina: Seeds for agroforestry and ecosystem restoration in Madagascar
Madagascar
Graine de Vie
Belgium
Fruit and other tree species
1,850
This project will, in a first phase, work with local communities to plant "indigenous" trees and fruit trees using tree plantations and agroforestry on 1,850 ha of "degraded lands" in Northern and Eastern Madagascar, in the areas of Ambohitantely, Fitovinany and Sava. The project is being coordinated by Graine de Vie and Climate Lab, both of Belgium. They will handle the sale of carbon credits generated by the project, from which a minimum of 60% of net revenues will be allocated to the communities, farmers or farmers associations for community projects "based on their representative carbon storage achievements".
C-Quest Capital is a Washington DC based carbon financing company founded by Ken Newcombe, who claims to have "pioneered the carbon trade" during his 20 years of work at the World Bank. He also spent 16 years on the board of the Verra carbon credit registry until 2023. The company's focus in Malawi has been on the distribution of cookstoves. This project, supported by USAID, will distribute bamboo seedlings for planting to households "continuously using and properly maintaining their cookstoves". C-Quest estimates that 3,584 ha equivalent of bamboo will be planted through the project. The US company TerraCarbon is the technical consultant for the project. C-Quest is funded by Dutch development bank FMO and Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, Temasek. In February 2024, C-Quest terminated Newcombe and then in June it announced it had "uncovered wrongdoing" by Newcombe resulting in "the over-issuance of millions of carbon credits to the Company in connection with its clean cooking programs".
This project intends to plant beechwood on 1,397 ha of leased agricultural land in the states of Tabasco and Tamaulipas in Mexico. The project proponents are Mexican Ala Bool Trust and German-based climate consulting firm Forliance who have agreements with PROXYLO, a Mexican beechwood developer, to develop carbon credit schemes on 80 private properties leased by PROXYLO. The proponents say the landowners have emigrated and abandoned these previously cultivated lands, which are now "degraded". This is the smallest of the carbon projects developed by Forliance in Mexico, which total over 400,000 ha of plantations. Forliance is owned by Macquerie, an Australian global financial services group that is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager, with more than $871 billion in assets. Macquerie is under several investigations including price fixing, tax evasion, conflict of interest and the destabilisation of national infrastructure development.
This project will generate carbon credits by planting trees on 750 ha of pasture lands and producing biochar. The project is within a 1,180 ha ranch purchased by the project proponent, Planalto, and is within the Laguna de Términos nature reserve in the State of Campeche, Mexico. The French carbon forest project developer Reforest'Action provided funding for the project.
This project aims to plant eucalyptus on 3,762 ha of scattered properties for timber and carbon credit revenue in the states of Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico. The proponent and owner of these properties, Forestaciones Operativas de México S.A. de C.V. (FOMEX), is a subsidiary of Proteak, the third largest teak producer in the world. Proteak is a publicly-listed company on the Mexican Stock Exchange and was established in 2000 by a group of US and Mexican business people. It has received considerable investments from the World Bank's IFC, the French Development Agency (AFD) through the Proparco Group, and the German Commerzbank, amongst others.
This project will plant native tree species on 369 ha of "Miombo woodlands" in and around Chibabava, Mozambique. These woodlands are used by local communities for grazing animals and swidden agriculture. The local NGO Azada Verde will implement the project by building nurseries of native tree species that will be planted within the project area and by facilitating the acquisition of a land concession (DUAT) for the project. Other proponents are a small Australian "advanced education" charity Reseed Indico and the Belgian climate broker Climate Lab, while the Government of Flanders funds it through a Climate Change Adaptation grant. Sales of carbon credits from the project will be shared with the communities through "social projects such as apiculture, schooling and water structures".
This project will plant Paulownia tomentosa (foxglove) trees on 992 ha of "degraded forest and wasteland with bamboo or shrubs" in the Myayarpin Reserved Forest of Oktwin Township, Bago Region, Myanmar. The company behind the project is the Taiwanese lighting company Color Park International and its local partner is an unknown company called Rich Group International. Color Park says the Bago Region Forest Department has given it "an explicit and uncontested legal tenure of the wasteland in the Oktwin Township" and exclusive rights over the carbon credits generated from the project. It also says that part of the lands are owned by Myanmar Hoist Trading Company Limited, which has given it a land usage right. There are three villages within the project area (Taung Nyo, Gway Kone and Gaing Dar) but the company claims there will be no displacement.
IMPROVING LIVELIHOOD OF FARMERS VIA CARBON FINANCE PROJECT IN NEPAL
Nepal
Varaha ClimateAg
India
Fruit trees
7,000
This project aims to plant fruit trees on an initial 7,000 ha across 44 districts in Nepal, which will expand to 35,000 ha by 2030. The land is either owned by private farmers or leased from local governments and participating farmers will sign a consent form transfer all carbon rights to the project proponent, India-based Varaha ClimateAg. The company claims that the "majority of the expected carbon money will be paid to the farmers". The founders of Varaha have backgrounds in tech startups working with Bayer, Monsanto, Covance, and Genentech. They say they have already enrolled over 250,000 ha of land across India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Kenya "to accelerate Agricultural Decarbonization". In early 2024, they announced that they had raised US$8.7 million from Omnivore, Orios Venture Partners and the Norinchukin Bank of Japan.
Integrated Project for Reforestation and Agroforestry on Degraded lands in Nicaragua
Nicaragua
MLR Forestal de Nicaragua S.A.
Nicaragua
Teak and cacao treees
4,200
This project intends to plant teak and cacao on 4,200 ha of cleared forests and agricultural areas in the Autonomous Region of the North Caribbean Coast, Nicaragua. MLR Forestal, the proponent of this project, currently has purchased a total of 5,140 ha, and has the intention of acquiring more land to expand commercial plantations and carbon credit schemes. MLR Forestal was established by the founders of the mining company Hemco de Nicaragua, S.A., which obtained 200,000 ha of mining concessions in Indigenous territories in violation of requirements for free, prior and informed consent. Although investigations by Oakland Institute exposed the deep connections between MLR Forestal and Hemco, MLR Forestal received over $10 million in loans from both the Dutch development bank (FMO) and Finnfund. Form International B.V., the developer of this project, is headquartered in the Netherlands and has developed over 30,000 ha in similar forestry projects in Africa and South America.
This project involves 10 farms owned and managed by subsidiaries of Norway's Norteak Group. Since 2008, the company has acquired 3,545 hectares of land, within which it manages 16 plantations covering 2,581 ha. For this project, the company has identified an initial 709 ha of "degraded grasslands" within these farms that it will plant with teak for timber and carbon revenues. Half of Norteak's shares are held by Norwegian pensions funds, including the pension fund for the municipalities of Akershus, Buskerud and Ostfold (16%), the state fund OVF (13%) and the health care workers pension fund PKH (14%). The other half is held by Norwegian private or family investments, such as Norga Capital AG. Forliance is the carbon credit scheme developer for the project. It is owned by the Australian global financial services group Macquerie, the world's largest infrastructure asset manager, with more than $871 billion in assets.
This project works with the Dutch NGO Solidaridad and 1,700 small coffee growers to "transition 18,728 ha of cultivated land to agroforestry" by incorporating shade, fruit and medicinal tree species on their lands in in Jinotega and Matagalpa, Nicaragua. 80% of the revenue generated from sales of carbon credits will go directly to participating farmers, 10% will go to Solidaridad and 10% to Rabobank. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into their project with coffee growers in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
The Native Ecosystem Restoration in Nicaragua Project
Nicaragua
Salvum Terra
Panama
Various tree species
20,000
This project aims to plant various tree species on 20,000 ha, starting with the acquisition of 6,000 ha in Nicaragua that is "unused or under-used", "degraded", "abandoned" or "cattle pasture grazed at very low densities". One of the proponents, US-based Climate Investment Partners, will develop the carbon credit schemes for the project, saying that they aim to eventually "restore" 1.3 million ha. The other proponent is a Panama-based company called Salvum Terra, whose director, Fredrik Lindblom, has been Senior Social Specialist with the Environmental and Social Safeguards Unit of the Inter-American Development Bank since 2017. Salvum Terra will make the land acquisitions for the project and sign agreements with landowners giving the company "access and land use rights to the property for the entirety of the project length for the purpose of reforestation, and the right to claim carbon credits". An initial 11 ha have already been planted on a farm owned by Lindblom and Salvum Terra was supposed to acquire a second property for the project in 2023. The companies have developed a basic stakeholder consultation plan with a proposed grievance mechanism in which "serious matters" will be handled by Lindblom and unresolved matters will be referred to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, "who will act as the projects' third party ombudsman".
In 2021, African Agriculture Holdings Inc, a US company listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, signed two agreements with the municipalities of Ingall and Aderbissinat in Niger. The agreements provide the company with 49 year leases for a total of 2.2 million ha of land in both municipality, as well as underground water rights, to plant Aleppo pine trees for the production of carbon credits. The company has also acquired 25,000 ha in Senegal to produce alfalfa feed for export, despite the opposition of local communities.
In 2022, the Nigerian oil company Seplat Energy Plc launched a "Tree4Life" initiative to plant one million trees every year to combat climate change and carbon emissions. Two years later, in April 2024, the Edo State government announced that it was allocating Seplat 6,000 ha of land from its protected forest reserves for the initiative. Seplat operates eight oil blocks in the Niger Delta. It is at least 20% owned by French oil company Maurel & Prom, which itself is majority owned by Indonesian national oil company Pertamina.
At COP28 in Dubai, Nigeria's National Council for Climate Change signed an agreement with France's aDryada for carbon investment projects with Osun State (reforestation of 20,000 ha) and Cross River State (57,000 ha of mangrove restoration). aDryada is a large-scale "nature based solutions" developer "based on high-end sequestration carbon credits". It founded the Organization for Biodiversity Certificates (OBC) and, in 2023, it joined with the French private equity firm Ardian, which manages US$164bn in assets, to establish the Averrhoa Nature-Based Solutions Fund - with the objective of deploying 1.5 billion euros into forest carbon projects. In Nigeria, aDryada has established a subsidiary, Noblesse Green Energy, to manage its projects.
Governor Mohammed Bago of Niger State has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Blue Carbon for a carbon capture project to plant one billion new trees on 760,000 ha in the state. The signing of the MoU was done on the sidelines of the ongoing COP28 Climate Summit in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Blue Carbon is "under the patronage" of Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook al Maktoum, a member of the UAE royal family. Since 2022, the company has signed MOUs for carbon offset projects with African governments covering over 25 million ha.
This project consists in planting various fruit and timber tree species on 125,824 ha of agricultural land in several districts of Punjab, Pakistan. Horae Energy (Pvt) Ltd, a renewable energy company and the project proponent, has mobilized farmers to plant trees on "degraded, barren, and fallow lands" belonging to "impoverished farmers" to sequester carbon. The carbon credit rights are transferred to Horae Energy (Pvt) Ltd, which in turn will share carbon revenues with farmers. The Indian company, Core CarbonX Solutions (Pvt) Ltd (CCX), a rapidly expanding climate consulting firm, manages the carbon credit scheme for this project.
This project aims to plant various hardwood species on 1,100 ha of former cattle ranches in Panama for timber and carbon revenues. Futuro Forestal, the project proponent, manages forest assets for investors who have purchased farms through its owner, The Generation Forest Group, is a Panamanian cooperative involving universities, research centers, UNEP, Indigenous communities, and private investors seeking to attract investors through Netherlands-based Generation Forest Invest. These investments will be used to purchase land and expand carbon credit activities in Panama.
This project will plant trees on 25,000 ha of degraded cattle pasture in Central Panama acquired or leased by one of the project proponents, Salvum Terra. The company and its partner, US-based Climate Investment Partners, has a similar carbon project operating in Nicaragua. Salvum Terra is a Panama-based company directed by Fredrik Lindblom, a Senior Social Specialist with the Environmental and Social Safeguards Unit of the Inter-American Development Bank. The company has, as of 2023, only identified one property for the project - a 1 ha farm in the Province of Veraguas under private landownership.
12Tree is a German-based private equity fund established in 2017 to acquire and develop sustainable farms in Latin America and Africa. Today it has 12 farms covering 20,000 ha. In 2022, it began a certification process on five of these farms for carbon credits with Verra. One of these is the 1,455 ha Cuango farm in Panama, where 12Tree will growing cocoa and native hardwoods and planting and preserving 660 hectares as natural rain forest. 12Tree is owned by The Renewable Resources Group (RRG), through its nature-based solutions division. RRG specialises in "monetising" water by buying up lands in parts of the world where it can get access to cheap irrigation to produce high value crops for export, like grapes and berries. It claims to have acquired over 100,000 ha of agricultural lands in Mexico, the US, Chile and Argentina, as well as private water rights in the US, Chile and Australia-- all areas where there are water scarcity issues.
This project aims to plant neem trees on 7,000 ha of grazing lands in the savannah of the Gran Chaco in Paraguay. El Retiro S.A. is the proponent of the project and NPP Neem Products Paraguay S.A. is the implementor. Both are owned by German businessman Martin Vorderwulbecke, who is accused of defrauding Slovenia's national airline of millions of dollars. Investigations by Solvenian media indicate that Vorderwulbecke purchased the privatised state airline through his company 4K Invest and then proceeded to drain it of funds, until it went bankrupt. These funds are reported to have been used to buy up farmland in Paraguay, including lands now being used for the neem carbon credit project. The Gran Chaco (Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil) is a global deforestation hotspot that has historically been a target of agribusiness developers, and recently carbon forestation projects. The project developer handling the carbon credit sales is Germany-based GmbH.
Afforestation of degraded grasslands in Caazapa and Guairá
Paraguay
Miller Forest
Germany
Eucalyptus and pine trees
3,800
This project consists in planting non-native eucalyptus and pine on 3,800 ha of purchased or leased grasslands in the departments of Caazapá and Guairá, Paraguay. The German company Miller Forest Investment is the proponent, while Felber Forestal S.A, a German forestry developer, handles project implementation and the Swiss-based carbon finance consultancy, South Pole, manages the carbon credit schemes. Miller Forest was founded by Josef Miller, owner of travel company Miller Incoming. Carsten Felber, founder of Felber Forestal, is a friend of Miller and together they run an investment scheme to enable foreigners to invest in tree plantations in Paraguay through their company. The companies claim to currently have 15,000 ha of tree plantations in Paraguay.
Silvipar S.A. forest plantations for the certification of carbon credits
Paraguay
SilviPar
Sweden
Eucalyptus trees
1,915
The project aims to plant eucalyptus on an initial four properties totalling 1,915 ha in Itapúa and Misiones, Paraguay. The proponent is SA Impact Forestry Fund (SAIFF) Hold Co. Ltd., a private equity fund registered in the Cayman islands that was launched by Astarte Capital Partners of the UK and the Swedish forestry company SilviPar AB. The fund raised US$325mn in 2024 from pension funds, corporations and other investors and says it intends to expand the project to 80,000 ha. Legally, SAIFF owns and controls the assets through SilviPar S.A, and therefore owns the trees and carbon revenues. SAIFF says it "will focus on acquiring low productivity farmland, suitable for forestation and with limited alternative uses, converting it into a sustainable, cost efficient forestry portfolio. The Fund is positioned to capitalise on strong macro-economic tailwinds, producing wood for the global fibre and pulp markets, and generating new credits for the carbon offset market."
Mixed planting of native and non-native species in Paraguay-I
Paraguay
Grupo Insud
Argentina
Eucalyptus
173
This project will plant eucalyptus trees on 173 ha of lands used for extensive cattle ranching in the Paraná Basin of Paraguay. The company that owns the land and is implementing the project is Pomera Maderas, a forestry-industrial company that is part of the Argentinian Grupo Insud - a business conglomerate owned by billionaire couple Hugo Sigman and Silvia Gold. Pomera Maderas owns 32,000 ha of timber plantations in Paraguay and Argentina. Grupo Insud is a founder and shareholder of the Argentine genetic engineering company Bioceres and is itself involved in genetic engineering.
Investancia Holding BV is a Dutch company founded and managed by Marcel van Heesewijk that is engaged in large-scale cultivation of pongamia to produce biodiesel and carbon credits. The company operates a 750 ha pongamia nursery and plantation in Paraguay, in the district of Carmelo Peralta, along the border with Brazil, and another 30 ha nursery across the border near Porto Murtinho, in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul. In early 2021, Investancia signed long-term supply agreements with BP, Shell and Brazil's largest biodiesel company, Grupo ECB, to supply feedstock for their biodiesel refineries. Following these agreements, Investancia announced that it was going to scale up its Paraguayan operations to convert 120,000 ha of "degraded" grazing lands into a "silvopastoral Pongamia forest" through lease agreements with private landowners that give it ownership of the trees and the carbon in exchange for a rental fee. In 2022, Shell acquired a 30% stake in Investancia, and, a year later, a stake in a the company's subsidiary, Quadriz, which develops REDD+ projects in Paraguay and uses blockchain technology to track tree planting. Dutch carbon offset investor DGB is also connected to Investancia through its 50% ownership of Dutch company Corekees, which was founded by the nephew of Marcel van Heesewijk and sells bonds to raise funds for the expansion of Investancia's plantations.
This project intends to plant eucalyptus on 2,658 ha of agricultural and pasture land in eastern Paraguay. Forestal Apepu S.A., the proponent of this project, is owned by Luxembourg-based private equity firm the Arbaro Fund which purchased the land with the intention of expanding carbon development through the purchase of additional property in the region. The Unique Group, a German consulting firm, will be charged with the management of the plantation. Unique co-founded Arbaro along with global impact asset manager Finance in Motion. Unique manages plantations on behalf of the Paraguay Agricultural Corporation (PAYCO), a company that has been associated with numerous conflicts with Indigenous Peoples and peasant communities over its operations, and investments in intensive livestock farming in Paraguay. The Green Climate Fund, the UN Climate Change Convention's financing mechanism, has signed a controversial $25 million equity agreement with the Arbaro Fund to support its plans to invest in 75,000 ha of new tree plantations across seven countries in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. The Arbaro Fund has currently attracted $110 million in investments, mainly from the European Investment Bank and the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation.
Paracel SA is a joint venture of three wealthy families: the Zapag family of Paraguay, which owns gas stations; the Norlin family of Sweden, through their financial company Girindus Investments; and the Heinzel family of Austria, which owns a global pulp and paper conglomerate. The company intends to build Paraguay's first giant pulp mill and supply it by planting eucalyptus on 190,000 ha of farms and ranches in Amambay, a region already beset by violent land conflicts. The plantations will also be used to generate carbon credits. Over $3 billion of investments and loans have been secured from high profile banks and financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs and the Inter-American Development Bank. There is already evidence that Paracel is using deceptive and aggressive tactics to secure lands, without proper consultation with affected communities. The company eventually intends to have an additional 500,000 ha in plantations and 200,000 ha in carbon credit schemes.
Afforestation and restoration of degraded forests in Eastern Paraguay or Forestal Azul Carbon Project
Paraguay
Unique Group
Germany
Eucalyptus
2,300
This project will plant eucalyptus on 2,300 ha of agricultural and pasture land in the department of San Pedro, eastern Paraguay. Forestal Azul S.A., the proponent of this project, is owned by Luxembourg-based private equity investment firm the Arbaro Fund. The Unique Group, a German consulting firm that is also a shareholder of Forestal Azul and co-founder of the Arbaro Fund, will manage the plantation through its subsidiary Unique Wood Paraguay. Unique manages plantations on behalf of the Paraguay Agricultural Corporation (PAYCO), a company that has been associated with numerous conflicts with Indigenous Peoples and peasant communities over its operations, and investments in intensive livestock farming in Paraguay.
This project works with the Peruvian coffee and cacao cooperative Norandino to enhance the agroforestry systems of over 1,000 small farmers by planting native trees on 1,202 ha of their farms in the regions of San Martin, Amazonas, and Cajamarca, Peru. It builds on a similar carbon credit project undertaken by Norandino with the UK company Cafédirect in 2010. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into this project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
This project will plant 1 million trees on 1,700 ha of degraded grazing lands on the Andean slopes of Yanaoca District, Peru. The organisation behind the project is World Vision Australia, which has applied for Gold Standard certification for an initial 418 ha. It says it will have exclusive rights over the carbon generated and that the profits from the sale of the credits will be used to support World Vision's projects in the area.
This project works with the Dutch NGO Solidaridad to "transition" 982 small coffee growers to by planting timber tree species on 2,100 ha of their own farms in Peru. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into the Acorn project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank. Rabobank says the income from carbon credits from this project, "if spent on food, is expected to allow farmers to purchase a wider variety of food rather than what is grown on their own farm (such as sources of protein)".
Marubeni is partnering with the Philippines government and a construction company owned by the billionaire Consunji family to develop a 10,000 ha tree plantation project on grasslands in Negros Occidental, the Philippines. Marubeni says the project will produce up to 100,000 tons of carbon credits every year.
This project will plant coffee trees on around 125 ha within the municipalities of Balbalan and Pasil in the Province of Kalinga, north of the Cordillera Region in the Philippines. The project is led by Heroica International Ltd, a UK coffee company founded by filmmaker Craig Johnson and carbon offset businessman Alastair Clyne. Under the project, small farmers will sign an "Agro Forestry management agreement" and a "profit-sharing agreement" with Heropica and lease their lands to the company. The company will "own the coffee bean rights and manage the plantations". Heroica says it already has agreements covering 30 ha, but the funds from carbon credits will allow it to expand the "total Kalinga estate" to 125 ha.
This project intends to plant bamboo on 8,421 ha in Lanao del Sur, on the island of Mindanao, Philippines. The proponent, US-based EcoPlanet, says it has leased the land from the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Energy (MENRE) and claims it "holds the contractual right to the land within the project boundary, the bamboo to be planted, and the associated GHG emission removals". EcoPlanet has mapped the area with drones and has expanded the original project boundaries, despite acknowledging that the land is not "alienable". It insists that the 320 households living within the project boundaries are "informal settlement communities" and says it will secure land tenure through a "Community-Based Forest Restoration and Management Agreement" with the MENRE. EcoPlanet is the largest owner of commercial bamboo plantations globally, with operations in South America, Africa and Asia. The project in the Philippines is a collaboration with Nestlé.
This project works with the Rwanda Trading Company and 2,643 small coffee growers who supply the company to plant shade trees on 504 ha of their own farms in Rwanda. The Rwanda Trading Company is owned by the Westrock Group, a US company founded and majority owned by Scott T. Ford and his powerful Arkansas family. Ford was named to the advisory council of Rwandan President Paul Kagame in 2007 and is the current Chairman of the Board of Rwanda's sovereign wealth fund, Agaciro. Westrock has received millions of dollars in funding and insurance from the US International Development Finance Corporation for its coffee business in Rwanda. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into the Acorn project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
This project intends to plant non-native species of bamboo, initially on 1,000 ha of leased land on riparian buffer zones in key watersheds and catchment areas within the mountainous areas of Rwanda. US-based EcoPlanet is the proponent of this project and Munich-based ClimatePartner, who is responsible for the carbon management through its own label which certifies companies as "climate neutral". EcoPlanet states that "communities have no legal rights to the buffer zone that is under government ownership", and so states that there are no stakeholders to engage with, nor mitigation measures to take. This project has been funded by the Dutch Embassy, and EcoPlanet has several other similar projects underway in key hotspot conservation areas in collaboration with the African Wildlife Foundation in Rwanda. EcoPlanet is the largest owner of commercial bamboo plantations globally, with operations in South America, Africa and Asia.
This project intends to plant mango and avocado on 15,000 ha of "degraded forestlands" and "hillsides/slopes" belonging to small farmers in the Rulindo and Bugesera districts of Rwanda. The 26,000 farmers involved in the project will keep ownership of their lands but will "transfer the right to claim, transfer and transact the emission reductions (carbon credits) generated on the lands" to Livelihoods Funds, the project proponent. The company is a French private equity firm founded by Unilever and Danone executives that manages funds that have developed 80,000 ha of carbon tree plantations since 2011 on behalf of corporate investors like Danone, Crédit Agricole S.A., Michelin, Hermès and Mars Inc. For this project, the implementation is being handled by the Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS).
This project will work with local communities to plant various species of trees on 2,000 ha of "degraded agro-sylvo-pastoral lands" in the departments of Bakel and Goudiry in Sénégal and the department of Kayes in Mali. This first phase of the project will be implemented through agreements with local communities who are the customary owners of the land and will focus on "enrichment planting and agroforestry systems" with "diverse native trees". The project is being coordinated by the UK organisation Tree Aid, which claims to have already "planted and regenerated nearly 6.5 million trees" in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ghana and Ethiopia. It is being financed through an advanced sale of the carbon credits to the International Olympic Committee.
This project intends to plant acacia for timber production on 26,897 ha of agricultural land under lease agreements in the Tonkolili and Port Loko districts of Sierra Leone. The project proponent is Miro Forestry, a private equity backed forest investment company registered in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in the UK. Miro has received funds from development banks from the UK, Netherlands, Finland and Canada, as well as the controversial Arbaro Fund. Miro leases land from communities for a rental fee (reportedly only $2 ha/yr) and its promised social projects have not materialised. The communities say the company's plantations block their access to critical transport routes and water sources. In Ghana, where Miro also operates a tree plantation, the communities say their lands were taken without consultation.
Kevin Godlington is a UK businessman and former soldier who previously orchestrated several, failed large-scale land deals in Sierra Leone. One of these projects was a large oil palm plantation in the District of Port Loko that cleared forest and displaced people from their farm lands before going bankrupt. In 2021, Godlington formed a new company, Rewilding Maforki, to pursue a 25,000 ha tree plantation project to generate carbon credits on the same lands. The company claims to have "multi-stakeholder agreements" with the local chiefdoms and is in the process of securing land leases with land owning families with the help of the legal NGO Namati. Through another company, Forest and Mangrove Protection Ltd, Godlington is said to have secured another 32,000 ha through a "state land lease" in the same district of Port Loko for a second carbon tree plantation project. In 2022, Godlington signed a deal with a Canadian company Carbon Done Right (formerly Klimat X), that is part owned by Godlington, which gives Carbon Done Right the rights to the carbon credits generated by both projects in exchange for over US$4mn. Carbon Done Right has already received US$ 2.5 million from the British oil corporation BP for credits that will be generated from the project's first 5,000 ha of planted land. A study by five NGOs based on testimonies from the affected communities found that Rewilding Maforki has violated people's land rights. In 2024, the company claimed to have "secured" another 10,000 ha in Ghana for a tree planting carbon credit project.
This project seeks to plant spekboom initially on 4,500 ha of a 7,300 ha private landholding within the Albany Thicket Biome of South Africa. The property has been purchased by the project proponent, Hive Ecosystems Ltd, a subsidiary of Hive Energy, a rapidly expanding UK "green energy" company founded by entrepreneur Giles Redpath which is also developing a large-scale green ammonia plant in South Africa with Japanese conglomerate Itochu that will be powered by wind and solar farms in the Western Cape. Hive Ecosystems says it purchased an additional 1,000 ha for the project in 2023.
Portland: Regenerative Agriculture & native revegetation on degraded land
South Africa
RussellStone
South Africa
Macadamia and other trees
814
The project consists of an initial 814 ha, located on two farms in the the Western Cape province of South Africa. It proposes to sequester carbon by "removing alien plants" from the "abandoned" farmlands and establishing a macadamia orchard, as well as planting some areas with native trees. The project proponent, Holmstone PTY Ltd., is owned by the same company that recently acquired the farmlands where the project is situated, RussellStone. Over the last couple of decades, RussellStone has grown into one of the largest agribusiness companies in Africa, with numerous farms and livestock operations across Southern Africa. It also established funds through which the endowments of Harvard University's and Vanderbilt University acquired farmlands in South Africa and Mozambique.
This project proposes to plant spekboom trees on a total of 4,000 ha of private properties for carbon revenues in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The project proponent, C-SA, has acquired several "degraded properties", including a "primary conservation area", known as the Kwandwe Private Game Reserve, that was formerly an ostrich farm before being turned into a 22,000 ha luxury safari reserve. C-SA and the Kwandwe reserve are owned by the Chouest family, a US billionaire family whose main business is Edison Chouest Offshore, a multi billion dollar global maritime, oil-exploration and offshore windfarm company.
Eastern Cape Restoration Project, South Africa - Somerset East
South Africa
EcoPlanet
US
Spekboom
20,000
This project aims to plant fastgrowing spekboom trees on 20,000 ha of private farms in Eastern Cape, South Africa. The project proponent, US-based EcoPlanet Bamboo Group, LLC, claims to exclusively own the land use rights and carbon revenues for these private lands that fall within conservancies and conservation areas but are said to not be legally regulated or protected. There have been no stakeholder consultations, and the status of the land ownership is not clear. Founded by US entrepreneurs Troy Wiseman and Camille Rebello, EcoPlanet is the largest owner of commercial bamboo plantations globally, with operations in South America, Africa and Asia.
TERRAGRN - Land Regeneration through Agroforestry in Mpumalanga South Africa - VPA 01
South Africa
TERRAGRN
UK
Bamboo and fruit trees
14,491
This project will plant bamboo, fruit trees and other crops on 14,491 ha of "abandoned degraded farmland" in Nkangala district, Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The company behind the project is UK-based TERRAGRN and it will implement the project on lands that it has leased for 50 years from the "Manala Mgibe Community Property Association (CPA), representing the Manala Mgibe community and Traditional Council (MMTC), and part of the Ndebele tribe". It will also have rights to all the carbon credits generated by the project. TERRAGRN is partnering with Catalytic Finance Foundation to finance the project and eventually expand it to 200,000 ha. It claims it will "generate sustainable returns in the mid-teens over 15-20 years for shareholders".
Eastern Cape Restoration Project, South Africa - Makhanda
South Africa
EcoPlanet
US
Spekboom
12,000
This project intends to plant spekboom on 12,000 ha in the Albany thicket ecosystem in Eastern Cape, South Africa. The proponent, US-based EcoPlanet Bamboo Group, is the largest owner of commercial bamboo plantations globally, with operations in South America, Africa and Asia and is pursuing another bamboo plantation project in this same area. EcoPlanet states that the project land falls under "Private Land Conservation Areas" as a sub-categorization Conservancies and Conservation areas, which "are not regulated and protected by any Act. They receive their protection from respective landowners without legally binding contracts". It states it is the owner of this land and its carbon credit revenues. Studies of the bamboo industry in the area highlight several environmental and social concerns, including land access, given the "many complex relationships that need to be negotiated with communities and traditional authorities". The World Bank's MIGA has provided millions of dollars in risk insurance to EcoPlanet for its operations in South Africa and Nicaragua.
Eastern Cape Bamboo Forestry Project, South Africa
South Africa
EcoPlanet
US
Bamboo
10,000
This project intends to clear and plant bamboo on 10,000 ha of coastal belt within the Maputaland-Pondoland Biodiversity Hotspot in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The proponent, US-based EcoPlanet Bamboo Group, is the largest owner of commercial bamboo plantations globally, with operations in South America, Africa and Asia. It began bamboo plantations in South Africa's Eastern Cape around 2011, when it purchased the 485 Kowie farm. It is now looking to expand massively with this carbon credit project on an additional 10,000 ha for which it claims it "holds a statutory right over". According to Verra registry documents, there have not yet been any stakeholder consultations, although studies of the bamboo industry in the area highlight land access as a major issue, given the "many complex relationships that need to be negotiated with communities and traditional authorities". The World Bank's MIGA has provided millions of dollars in risk insurance to EcoPlanet for its operations in South Africa and Nicaragua.
Establishing a Rubber Cultivation Project with Community Engagement in the Eastern & Uva Provinces of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Rubber Reseach Institute of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Rubber trees
3,000
This project, led by the Rubber Research Institute of Sri Lanka, aims to plant rubber trees suited for drylands on 3,000 ha of "non-conventional, degraded or abandoned" agricultural land, involving small holder families of Ampara and Monaragala districts of Sri Lanka. This project was initially operated under the Smallholder Tea and Rubber Revitalization (STaRR) Project initiated by the Ministry of Plantation Industries and funded by both the Government of Sri Lanka and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Funding for STaRR stopped after 5 years, and the proponent is now turning to carbon credits as an alternative means of finance. It is not clear what the benefit sharing agreements are in terms of the carbon revenues and rubber harvest.
This project works with the Tanzanian NGO Kaderes and 5,000 small coffee growers to integrate shade, fruit and medicinal tree species on 38,715 ha of their farms in Karagwe and Kyerwa districts, Tanzania. 10% of the revenue from the sale of carbon credits will go to Kaders, 10% to Rabobank and the farmers will get the remainder split in direct payments and "in-kind as per agreement contact in place that farmers have signed". The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into their project with coffee growers in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
This project is part of the USAID-funded International Small Group and Tree Planting Program (TIST) carried out in India, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It intends to plant various trees species on 2,882 ha of lands belonging to 3,740 farmers in Tanzania who are already participating in the TIST programme. The farmers plant trees on their land and retain ownership of the trees and their products while they grant the rights to all carbon associated with TIST activities to the project proponent, Clean Air Action Corporation (CAAC), under a "Carbon Credit Sale Agreement". CAAC is a US-based for-profit that is responsible for the carbon management and development of TIST. It is a subsidiary of US oil and gas pipeline company Energy Transfer, the company behind the development of the infamous Dakota Access Pipeline.
This project will plant native species of trees on 6,200 ha of "agricultural land, fallow or abandoned land" bordering the forests of the Mkingu Forest Nature Reserve in Mvomero district, Morogoro Region, Tanzania. The lands will be leased from small holder farmers and village councils under "a 30-year land lease agreement where they commit to the development of the planted trees into a diverse, healthy forest without felling any trees over the 30 years lease period". Most of the lands are currently used for "subsistence agriculture". Participating farmers will benefit from fees for renting their lands and jobs in the tree plantations and nurseries. The project is a partnership of the conservation group PAMS Foundation, the Dutch carbon tree plantation broker Trees for All and Singapore-based AirImpact, an impact investment company founded and run by Finnish tech businessman Antti Saarnio.
This project aims to clear and plant "rare tropical hardwoods" on 7,500 ha of bracken fern thicket in the Eastern Arc Biodiversity hotspot connecting the Kilombero Nature Reserve and the Udzungwa Scarp Nature Reserve in Tanzania. The project proponent is Udzungwa Corridor Limited, founded by Carter Coleman an American entrepreneur who also founded the Tanzania Forest Conservation Group (TFCG) and the British firm Agrica Ltd, developer of the failed and highly controversial Kilombero Plantation Limited, a large-scale intensive rice plantation in the Kilombero flood-plains. According to the proponent, thirty-year leases at US$25/ha/year have been signed with small holder farmers for this carbon credit development project. Over $33 million of carbon credits have been pre-purchased by The Skoll Foundation/Fund and Pacific Sequoia Holdings, LLC. Other shareholders of the project include the TFCG and Reterra Limited, a UK company owned and directed by Carter Coleman.
Eucalyptus, khaya, gmelina, bamboo and cashew trees
31,435
Sequoia Plantation intends to plant eucalyptus, khaya, gmelina, bamboo and cashew trees on 31,435 ha of grasslands, shrub lands and agricultural lands in Togo. It will plant the trees on lands it has leased or purchased or on communal and smallholder lands for which it will sign buyback agreements giving it the rights over the carbon. In 2022, it has already acquired 3,300 ha and planted 1,000 ha. The French companies, AERA Group (the "largest primary seller of voluntary carbon credits in Africa") and LTA Conseils will develop the carbon scheme and sales. Sequoia Plantation is owned by the Abu Dhabi conglomerate, Equitane Group (formerly Africa Transformation and Industrialization Fund), which was established by a former executive of the agribusiness corporation Olam. It is closely associated with ARISE, a fund jointly owned with the Africa Finance Corporation that builds export processing zones in West and Central Africa for commodities like wood, palm oil and cashews. Over the next decade, Sequoia Plantation intends to have 200,000 ha of large-scale tree plantations with carbon offset components in Togo, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo.
This project works with the Dutch NGO Solidaridad and 2,839 small coffee growers to integrate shade, fruit and medicinal tree species on 23,292 ha of their farms in Mount Elgon, Uganda. 20% of the revenue from the sale of carbon credits will go to Solidaridad and Rabobank, and 80% will go to farmers in direct payments (It is not clear where the other 10% will go). The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into their project with coffee growers in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
French carbon project developer Hummingbirds plans to plant teak trees and indigenous tree species on 38,000 ha of degraded lands in Mount Kei, Uganda. The lands are within a forestry concession belonging to its local partner Equatoria Forestry Company, which will be handling the project management. The teak will be harvested and used as construction material in Uganda, while the rest of the project will generate carbon credits. Hummingbirds has raised US$1.4 million in short-term loans for the project through the online platform Lendosphere. Humming bird was founded by Anaïs Bach, who previously worked with TotalEnergies' sustainability team as head of operations for nature-based solutions. Equatoria Forestry Company, was founded by Peter Skov, the representative for Tullow Oil PLC in South Sudan and a director of Equatoria Teak Company, which holds a 73,000 ha forestry concession in South Sudan.
This project intends to plant a mixture of fast-growing species of "indigenous and exotic non-invasive" trees for charcoal and timber on 602,000 ha of land held by small farmers in northern Uganda. The carbon aspects of the project were developed by UK-based One Carbon World, while the main company implementing the project is Kijani Forestry, a Ugandan company owned by a US couple that grows trees for charcoal and timber on over 400 acres that it owns and through partnerships with 300 different farmer groups in Gulu district. While the Verra project descriptions says the project will begin with three gardens of a total 0.5 ha belonging to Kijani, One Carbon World says the project has "already planted over 10 million trees equating to around 6000 hectares of land". It is not clear how the revenues from the sale of carbon credits will be shared with participating farmers.
This project aims to plant bamboo on 10,000 ha of "grassland, not used for many decades and/or land that has been heavily farmed for many decades" in Uganda. The project proponent is the Estonian company 1MT Nation OU, which claims to have raised one million euros from Estonian investors to generate "high-quality" carbon credits on at least 1 million ha of "damaged lands" by 2030. 1MTN leases lands and compensates the landowners either through a rental fee or revenue sharing from the sale of carbon credits and biomass. The company is looking to expand further into Uganda and Kenya and is working with Canadian carbon broker ClearBlue Markets to sell the carbon credits generated by its project. 1MTN's founders are a start-up investor and a climate lawyer, who claims to be an advisor to governments. In May 2024, the company organized an East Africa Carbon Markets Forum in Kampala, with backing from the Estonian government.
This project intends to plant oil palms on a 5,000 ha estate owned by Oil Palm Buvuma Limited (OPBL), which, "leveraging on the opportunity of vast and virgin land", have 99 year lease agreements with the Ugandan Government in Buvuma Island, Uganda. Buvuma has been heavily deforested due to oil palm plantings, and community opposition as land grabbing continues. OPBL is a joint venture of the Kenyan company BIDCO and multinational palm oil giant Wilmar, which has an abundant track record of human rights violations. Its plantation operations in Uganda have received funding from IFAD and the World Bank. OPBL argues that "land use prior to the project implementation is low productive grassland and/or subsistence agriculture on low productive croplands. Buvuma island soils cannot support intensive agriculture for a prolonged period, and therefore cannot help the small farmer to earn an income out of these lands via cultivation of food crops alone". No significant stakeholder consultation has been undertaken. OYU GREEN Ltd, a US/Indian carbon developer "with over $300 million in annual revenue", is owned by the Shri Maa Group (SMG), one of India's largest trading houses. The company says its partners include Nestlé, Unilever, Tata, Apple, Jio and Samsung.
This project proposes to plant eucalyptus on 5,000 ha of private land belonging to the project proponent, Nile Fibreboard, in Jinja District, Uganda. Nile Fibreboard, which already has 25,000 ha of land planted with pine and eucalyptus in Uganda, is part of the Rai Group, a Kenyan-based family conglomerate that owns numerous plantation, food, metals, and timber companies in east and southern Africa. Over the past decade and a half, the Rai Group has become one of the continent's largest players in the production and import of sugar. Several of its sugar companies are involved in land conflicts, including the displacement of 5,000 people by Hoima Sugar Limited in Kigyayo, Uganda. The carbon developer for this project is OYU GREEN Ltd, a US/Indian carbon developer that is owned by the Shri Maa Group, one of India's largest trading houses.
This project intends to plant various trees species on an initial 3,534 ha with 9,000 farmers in Uganda. The project is part of the USAID-funded International Small Group and Tree Planting Program (TIST) carried out in India, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The farmers will plant trees on their land and retain ownership of the trees and their products while they grant the rights to all carbon to the project proponent, Clean Air Action Corporation (CAAC), under a "Carbon Credit Sale Agreement". CAAC is a US-based for-profit that is responsible for the carbon management and development of TIST. It is a subsidiary of US oil and gas pipeline company Energy Transfer, the company behind the development of the infamous Dakota Access Pipeline.
Eucalyptus, pine, coffee, cacao and macademia trees
10,000
OYU GREEN Ltd is a US/Indian carbon developer that is owned by the Shri Maa Group, one of India's largest trading houses. Under this project, it's first in Africa, the company will plant eucalyptus, pine, coffee, cacao and macadamia trees on 10,000 ha of "low productive grasslands" and "unproductive/uncultivated croplands" in Uganda. The company says the farmers who own the land have consented to the project and have agreed to transfer all carbon rights to OYU. The company says its partners include Nestlé, Unilever, Tata, Apple, Jio and Samsung.
Uganda Native Reforestation and Agroforestry Project
Uganda
Climate Investment Partners
US
Various tree species
10,000
This project proposes to plant various tree species for "permanent reforestation" on 10,000 ha of lands currently used for subsistence agriculture in the eastern region of Uganda. The project proponents, US-based Climate Investment Partners (CIP) and Ugandan NGO For People and Planet Uganda (FPPU), have established a "land enrolment protocol" with a legal team that verifies and ensures tenure by private landowners or the Uganda Forest Authority. Participating landholders have to give FPPU "access and land use rights to the property for the entirety of the project length for the purpose of reforestation, and the right to claim carbon credits". Benefit sharing will be done through "project financing activities". The companies say they will fund the project either with debt financing, forward carbon offset sales, or a sale of equity.
Afforestation activity on deserted wasteland in the Arab peninsula (Ghaba)
United Arab Emirates
Dake Group
South Africa
Fruit and other trees
23,000
This project intends to plant commercial species, including fruit trees, on 23,000 ha of "deserted wasteland" in the Arab peninsula - UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The proponent, Dake Rechsand, is a collaboration between South Africa's Dake Group and the Rechsand Technology Group from China who together produced a range of patented technologies with silica sand. "Breathable sand" is being marketed by Chandra Dake, founder of Dake Group, as a "sustainable" solution to converting deserts into arable land through the extraction of Gobi Desert sand. The proponent aims to plant 12 million trees in the Arab Gulf states, selling the soil, while claiming carbon credits from plantations. It states land owners have "voluntarily" agreed to plant and maintain trees on their land and given "that there are no specific existing regulations on the rights to carbon credits in the region", it has the exclusive rights to the carbon credits.
Montes del Este afforestation through high quality timber in degraded grasslands
Uruguay
Cambium
Chile
Eucalyptus and pine trees
4,314
This project intends to plant eucalyptus and pine on 15 farms covering 4,314 ha of grazing land out of a total of 6,973 ha, in the departments of Cerro Largo and Treinta y Tres, Uruguay. The proponent is Fideicomiso Financiero Forestal Montes del Este, a company established by the Chilean forest asset manager Cambium, which manages over 1.2 million ha of commercial timber plantations in Chile, Uruguay and Colombia on behalf of investors, including 140,000 ha in Uruguay. The carbon credit scheme for the project will be managed by Uruguayan-based Climit and Carbosur, which has developed several similar schemes for investor funds in South America.
This project will plant citrus, avocado and nut trees, as well as eucalyptus, on 2,956 ha of "degraded" farmlands that were previously used for cereal and livestock farming in the Northwestern part of Uruguay. The farm and the project are managed by the Uruguayan beef and agricultural commodities export broker AgroSocio SA, while the farm is owned by its long-time business partner Southern Harvest Partners. Southern Harvest Partners is owned by US-based Anholt Services, which invests on behalf of a trust of the family that owns the Teekay Corporation, one of the world's largest shippers of fossil fuels. Anholt has numerous agribusiness and carbon credit investments around the world.
HG Afforestation Through High Quality Timber Over Degraded Grasslands
Uruguay
Pike&Co
Uruguay
Eucalyptus trees
788
The project comprises a total of 790 ha of former grazing land in Uruguay, owned by a private investor, that will be planted with eucalyptus for wood and carbon credits. The Uruguayan companies Carbosur and Pike&Co Consultoria Forestal, both owned by forestry consultant Alvaro Perez de Castillo, will manage the project on behalf of the unnamed private investor. Pike&Co is the project proponent, it manages several forestry projects for investors totalling over 220,000 ha in Uruguay.
ΓÇÿQarlbo' Afforestation Through High-Quality Timber Over Degraded Grasslands
Uruguay
Qarlbo Natural Asset Company
Sweden
Eucalyptus trees
510
This project aims to plant eucalyptus for timber production on 510 ha of private land "formerly used for extensive cattle grazing" owned by Qarlbo Natural Asset Company (NAC) Forest AB, in Uruguay. Qarlbo is a Swedish family-owned investment company with multiple companies involved in entertainment, hospitality, energy, property and finance. Its founder, Conni Jonsson, is a billionaire who also founded EQT with the powerful Wallenberg Family. EQT is considered to be the world's third largest private equity firm managing EUR 246 billion in assets. In 2021, when EQT went public, Conni used Qarlbo for the stock transfer. Swedish regulators have opened a market abuse investigation. In this project, Forestal Atlántico Sur S.A.R.L. manages the property with Uruguayan forest asset managers Carbosur and Pike&Co Consultoria Forestal, which manages several forestry projects for investors totalling over 220,000 ha in Uruguay. According to the project description "the entire production of the 'Qualbro' project (wood, meat and carbon credits) will have the international market as the final destination". Qualbro's investment model is to "acquire degraded land and forests", plant trees, and "create real, measurable and verified climate and biodiversity impact to show net-biodiversity gain".
This project aims to plant eucalyptus on 12,574 ha of grasslands in Uruguay for pulp and biomass, with 4,282 ha of the project area identified for carbon credit production. The proponent is Fideicomiso Financiero Forestal Montes del Este, a US$60 million company established by the Chilean forest asset manager Cambium, which manages over 1.2 million ha of commercial timber plantations in Chile, Uruguay and Colombia on behalf of investors, including 140,000 ha in Uruguay. The carbon credit scheme for the project will be managed by Uruguayan-based Climit and Carbosur, which has developed several similar schemes for investor funds in South America.
Lumin/Eucapine Forest Plantations on degraded grasslands under extensive grazing
Uruguay
BTG Pactual
Brazil
Eucalyptus and pine trees
18,988
The project will plant eucalyptus and pine trees on 18,988 ha of grazing land purchased by the project proponent, Lumin (Eucapine) in Uruguay. This project expects to generate carbon credits which it will sell to buyers, as it has done in other project sites. Lumin is a leading producer and exporter of plywood panels in Uruguay and manages 120,000 ha of wood plantations in the country. In 2017, it was sold by the global forestry giant, Weyerhaeuser, to BTG Pactual's Timberland Investment Group, one of the world's largest owners of timberland, with over 1 million ha under management.
Bugnavilla Afforestation Through High-Quality Timber Over Degraded Grasslands
Uruguay
Latifundium
Germany
Eucalyptus trees
1,980
This project aims to plant eucalyptus on 1,980 ha of lands in Uruguay formerly used for livestock grazing that were acquired by the German investment fund Latifundium, through its local company, Bugnavilla SAS. The Uruguayan companies Carbosur and Pike&Co, both owned by forestry consultant Alvaro Perez de Castillo, will manage the project. Latifundium owns tree plantations in the US, New Zealand, Europe, Panama, Argentina and Uruguay.
Bosques del Uruguay II (BDU II) Afforestation through High Quality Timber in Grasslands Project
Uruguay
Agroempresa Forestal
Uruguay
Eucalyptus trees
14,657
This project will generate carbon credits by planting eucalyptus on 1,056 ha out of a total land area of 14,657 ha that the proponent, the Uruguayan company Agroempresa Forestal, acquired for a commercial timber project called Bosques del Uruguay II. It is one of several land areas for timber plantations that Agroempresa Forestal has acquired in Uruguay, Brasil and Chile by raising funds on the Montevideo stock exchange. The Bosques del Uruguay II project received US$70 million from the five largest public and private pension funds in Uruguay, which also provided Agroempresa Forestal additional funds in 2019 to purchase the Uruguayan tree plantations owned by Harvard University's endowment fund.
This project works with the Zambian company Community Markets for Conservation, founded and led by US conservation scientist Dale Lewis, to support over 111,000 small farmers "to transition to agroforestry by growing Gliricidia sepium (quickstick)", a fast-growing tree that fixes nitrogen on 80,075 ha of their own farms in Zambia. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into the Acorn project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
This project works with the Carbon Forest Zambia to engage 2,322 small farmers in planting and maintaining cashew trees on 1,888 ha of their farms in the Western Province of Zambia. It takes over from a previous, failed project supported by the World Bank. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into this project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.
In December 2022, the multinational trading company ETG Commodities, announced that it listed its "Zambia Agroforestry Grouped Project" with Verra Carbon Certification. The project, in partnership with Mitsui and ETG's "affiliate", the Empowering Farmers Foundation, intends to plant 5.5 million cashew tree seedlings on 72,000 ha across ten districts in Zambia's Western Province. It is an outgrowth of ETG's Cashew Infrastructure Development Project, which was funded by the African Development Bank, and part of ETG's African Emerging Farmer Carbon Abatement Project announced at COP27.
In September 2023, the Government of Zambia signed an MOU with the Chinese company Jiangxi Fenglin Investment and Development Company Limited to plant trees on 4 million ha, with an initial project to plant pine trees on 100,000 ha. The company is part of the Fenglin Investment Group, a forestry conglomerate owned primarily by Chinese billionaire Liu Yichuan. Its first carbon credit tree plantations project covered 14,700 ha in China, and supplied credits to Shell. The company has also received multiple loans from the World Bank's IFC over the past decade. The company is now looking to ramp up its carbon projects by developing genetically modified pine trees and by expanding overseas as part of China's Belt and Road Initiative.
This project works with the UK-registered charity One Acre Fund and 1,128 small farmers to plant shade and fruit trees on 1,548 ha of their own farms in Central and Southern Province, Zambia. The project is part of the Dutch-based Rabobank's Acorn programme, which uses satellite imagery (with minimal on the ground testing) as a low cost way to verify that participating small farmers are planting and maintaining trees and, thus, sequestering carbon. An investigation commissioned by Rabobank into the Acorn project in Côte d'Ivoire, however, found that the satellite data was overestimating the carbon sequestered by a factor of six and that there were serious concerns about its overlap with a World Bank-funded reforestation programme targeting cocoa growers in the same area. Most of the carbon credits generated by Acorn projects are sold to Microsoft and Standard Chartered Bank.