The Global EverGreening Alliance and Climate Asset Management announce partnership to deliver a landmark USD 150 million nature based carbon programme in Africa.

The Restore Africa programme aims to restore more than two million hectares of land and directly support two million smallholder farms in the next five years across six African countries – Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The programme is an innovative community-led model that connects the local efforts of farmers on the ground with new revenue streams from global carbon markets.

Building on the existing investments of smallholder farms and NGOs to restore degraded ecosystems, the Global EverGreening Alliance will support farmers to adopt regenerative and other sustainable land management practices that sequester GHG emissions at scale.

Climate Asset Management – a partnership between HSBC Asset Management and Pollination – intends to provide the financing required to implement these activities, against the forward volume of carbon credits expected to be produced. Under the model, investors in Climate Asset Management’s Nature Based Carbon Strategy would receive the carbon credits generated, as their return.

By coordinating and connecting the actions of a multitude of stakeholders and more than two million smallholder farms, massive scale is created for significant investments – making the connection between individual farmers and global carbon markets possible.

“Restore Africa represents a major paradigm shift, both in the way we support the world’s most vulnerable communities and in how we address climate change. It demonstrates how corporate investment can dramatically increase both the scale and scope of benefits from proven farmer-led approaches to land restoration,” said Chris Armitage, Global EverGreening Alliance CEO.

“This programme will directly support more than 10 million people, improving their livelihoods and food security with more productive farms that are more resilient to the impacts of climate change. It will also provide farming communities with additional long-term revenue from the sale of almost half of all carbon credits generated from the programme, so they can invest in their own futures,” Mr Armitage said.

“This programme creates a blue-print for scaling community-led, nature-based solutions. Equity is at the heart of the programme’s design – through our approach we’re seeking to align the interests of individual farmers, the private sector and governments across the region,” said Martin Berg, who heads Climate Asset Management’s Nature Based Carbon Strategy.

“Demand for high quality, high impact, nature-based carbon credits is growing. Many corporates are doing what they can to rapidly reduce their emissions, and are seeking ways to offset unavoidable emissions in the most impactful way possible. We’re creating a solution,” Mr Berg said.

In partnerhsip with the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), the programme will also hold a series of land restoration summits to be held in 2022. The four summits will bring together stakeholders from across Africa including governments, NGOs, scientists, corporate and institutional funders. The summits aim to develop a roadmap, commitments and targets for scaling-up land restoration, enhancing biodiversity and supporting more resilient livelihoods for the world’s most vulnerable rural communities in the lead-up to COP27 in Africa.

Details of the partnership were announced at COP26, by Global EverGreening Alliance Ambassador, Irene Ojuok at the Land Use Event: Transforming land-use systems with nature and health at the centre of climate solutions and global recovery hosted by the Marrakech Partnership.