Trafigura-Backed Woodland Restoration Initiative Targets $1 Billion Investment Across Four African Nations

Global energy trader Trafigura has taken a major step in channeling private capital toward climate solutions by identifying four large-scale carbon removal projects across southern and central Africa. The initiative, operating under the Miombo Restoration Alliance framework, aims to invest at least $1 billion over the projects’ 40-year lifetime while restoring critical woodland ecosystems that support more than 300 million people.

Hannah Hauman, Head of Carbon Trading at Trafigura, emphasized the strategic importance of carbon markets in mobilizing sustainable financing for these long-term environmental projects. The announcement marks a significant development in how private sector capital is being deployed to address climate change while simultaneously benefiting local communities and governments across the African continent.

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The Miombo Restoration Alliance Framework

Launched at New York Climate Week 2024, the Miombo Restoration Alliance represents a pioneering public-private partnership that brings together Trafigura, the International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF Group), Conservation International, and governments from 11 central and southern African nations. The alliance was established to tackle the urgent challenge of restoring Miombo woodlands, an ecosystem spanning over 1 million square miles that has faced increasing pressure from deforestation, climate change, and unsustainable land use practices.

The participating countries include Angola, Botswana, Congo Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. This broad coalition reflects the transboundary nature of the Miombo ecosystem and the shared commitment among these nations to protect and restore one of Africa’s most critical natural resources.

The alliance operates under a framework designed to produce high-integrity carbon removal credits aligned with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. This framework ensures that restoration activities meet international standards for environmental integrity, community benefit, and verifiable carbon sequestration. The ICCF Group serves as the secretariat, coordinating activities and ensuring alignment across multiple stakeholders, while Conservation International provides technical expertise to ensure positive environmental and community outcomes.

In 2025, the alliance strengthened its operational capabilities by adding Carbon Direct as its scientific and project design advisor and engaging Terraspect as the payments infrastructure provider. These additions enhance the alliance’s capacity to implement sophisticated monitoring systems, verify carbon removal outcomes, and ensure transparent distribution of revenues to communities and governments.

The Four Inaugural Projects

The first wave of projects spans 675,000 hectares across Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, and Malawi, with a collective goal of removing over 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from the atmosphere. Each project has been designed to address specific regional challenges while contributing to the alliance’s overarching objectives of ecological restoration, community development, and climate mitigation.

Malawi’s Large-Scale Restoration Initiative

The flagship project in Malawi encompasses more than 550,000 hectares and incorporates a mosaic approach combining conservation and restoration activities. Working in partnership with Mamaland, a Mota-Engil Company, the project has recently completed one of the largest native species nurseries in Africa, with an annual capacity reaching 11 million seedlings.

Luís de Sousa, CEO at Mamaland, described the participation as “a strategic commitment to operating at the scale the planet now demands.” The Malawi project includes multiple components beyond core restoration activities: dedicated nursery capacity for community agroforestry programs, an “energetic forest” of at least 10,000 hectares for sustainable timber production to address the underlying causes of degradation, direct revenue sharing mechanisms with communities and government, and a substantial direct employment program that will provide livelihoods for thousands of local residents.

Zambia’s Agroforestry Transformation

In Zambia, the alliance is implementing an agroforestry initiative designed to restore degraded agricultural land while improving productivity and resilience for approximately 45,000 farmers. This project recognizes that sustainable restoration must integrate with agricultural systems that communities depend upon for their livelihoods.

The agroforestry approach combines native tree species with agricultural crops, creating systems that enhance soil fertility, increase water retention, diversify farmer income sources, and sequester significant amounts of carbon. By working directly with local farming communities, the project aims to demonstrate that restoration and agricultural productivity can be mutually reinforcing rather than competing objectives.

Projects in Tanzania and Mozambique

While specific details about the Tanzania and Mozambique projects remain under development, both initiatives will follow the alliance’s comprehensive framework for native species restoration. These projects will leverage the lessons learned from early implementation in Malawi and Zambia while addressing the unique ecological and social contexts of their respective regions.

All four projects are expected to close in the second quarter of 2026, following completion of customary regulatory approvals. The projects will generate revenues primarily from carbon credit sales, with the financial structure designed to ensure long-term sustainability and meaningful benefit sharing with local communities.

Revenue Sharing and Community Benefits

A distinguishing feature of the Miombo Restoration Alliance approach is its commitment to equitable benefit distribution. Approximately 100,000 community members, farmers, and national governments across the four initial project countries will participate in revenue-sharing agreements.

According to Hauman, these arrangements will vary from 10-60% depending on the nature and structure of each specific project. This range reflects the diverse ways communities engage with restoration activities—from providing land access and participating in planting activities to managing conservation areas and developing value-added products from sustainably harvested resources.

The revenue-sharing model represents a significant evolution from traditional conservation approaches that often excluded local communities from economic benefits. By ensuring that communities receive direct financial returns from carbon credit sales, the alliance creates powerful incentives for long-term stewardship of restored woodlands. Community members become partners in conservation rather than bystanders, fundamentally altering the sustainability equation.

Beyond direct revenue sharing, the projects will generate substantial employment opportunities throughout their implementation. Nursery operations, planting activities, monitoring programs, and sustainable harvesting of forest products will all require significant labor inputs, providing jobs in rural areas where formal employment opportunities are often scarce. The Malawi project alone has committed to a “substantial direct employment program,” though specific job numbers have not yet been disclosed.

Understanding the Miombo Woodland Ecosystem

The Miombo woodlands represent the largest expanse of dry tropical forest in the world, covering over 1 million square miles across southern and central Africa. Named for the dominant Brachystegia trees—called “miombo” in Swahili—these woodlands support extraordinary biodiversity including over 8,500 plant species, more than 300 of which are tree species.

The ecosystem provides critical habitat for wildlife populations including elephants, with the Miombo region hosting over 50% of Africa’s remaining elephant population. Other iconic species including lions, giraffes, rhinos, and numerous antelope species depend on these woodlands for survival. The region’s biodiversity extends beyond large mammals to include countless bird, reptile, amphibian, and invertebrate species, many of them endemic to the Miombo.

For human populations, the Miombo woodlands serve as a vital source of livelihood resources. Rural communities extract fuelwood, charcoal, timber, thatching grass, traditional medicines, fruits, honey, and numerous other products from the woodlands. The ecosystem also provides essential services including carbon sequestration, soil fertility maintenance, erosion control, and watershed protection that supports hydropower generation across the region.

Despite these critical functions, the Miombo faces severe threats. Agricultural expansion, unsustainable charcoal production, illegal logging, and uncontrolled burning have degraded large areas of woodland. Climate change adds additional pressure through shifting rainfall patterns, increased drought frequency, and altered fire regimes. Recent estimates suggest that approximately one-third of Miombo woodland cover has been lost over the past 10-15 years, raising urgent concerns about the long-term viability of the ecosystem.

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Carbon Markets as Climate Finance Mechanism

The Miombo Restoration Alliance’s approach reflects a broader shift among Global South countries toward developing local carbon markets as a mechanism for funding environmental protection and low-carbon transition. As official development assistance from wealthier nations has become less predictable, countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America are increasingly turning to carbon credit sales to finance conservation and restoration activities.

Hauman articulated this strategic perspective clearly: “We really see the carbon markets as critical, as being able to channel private sector capital in a way that makes these projects long-term and sustainable.” This view positions carbon markets not as a marginal funding source but as a central pillar of project finance, enabling interventions at a scale commensurate with the magnitude of environmental challenges.

The carbon credits generated by the alliance’s projects will be classified as high-quality removal credits, suitable for purchase by countries or companies seeking to meet their climate targets. Similar high-integrity nature-based removal credits have traded above $50 per metric ton in recent transactions. At this pricing level, the removal of 50 million metric tons across the four initial projects could generate at least $2.5 billion in carbon credit revenues over the projects’ lifetimes.

This substantial revenue potential demonstrates how carbon markets can mobilize private capital for climate action at unprecedented scale. Rather than relying solely on philanthropic funding or government budgets—both of which are limited and unpredictable—the alliance taps into growing corporate and national demand for high-quality carbon removal credits. This creates a sustainable financing mechanism that aligns economic incentives with environmental outcomes.

Article 6 and International Carbon Market Framework

All projects under the Miombo Restoration Alliance will generate carbon removal credits under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, the international framework governing cooperative climate action and carbon credit trading between nations. Article 6 establishes mechanisms for countries to voluntarily cooperate in achieving their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) while maintaining environmental integrity through rigorous accounting standards.

The alignment with Article 6 provides several critical advantages for the alliance’s projects. First, it ensures that carbon credits meet internationally recognized standards for additionality, permanence, and verification—key criteria that distinguish high-integrity credits from lower-quality offsets that have plagued voluntary carbon markets. Second, it creates pathways for credits to be used by countries toward their NDCs, potentially commanding premium prices from government buyers seeking to meet international climate commitments.

Third, the Article 6 framework includes provisions for “corresponding adjustments”—an accounting mechanism that prevents double counting of emission reductions when credits are transferred between countries. This technical safeguard is essential for maintaining the environmental integrity of carbon markets and ensuring that global emissions accounting accurately reflects real-world atmospheric impacts.

The alliance’s emphasis on Article 6 compliance positions its projects at the forefront of evolving international carbon market governance. As countries finalize the technical details of Article 6 implementation—a process that has extended across multiple Conference of Parties meetings—early movers like the Miombo Restoration Alliance gain experience and credibility that will be valuable as the market matures and scales.

Trafigura will play a central role in commercializing the carbon credits generated across all alliance projects. The company’s extensive experience in global commodity markets and established relationships with both public and private sector buyers provide crucial distribution capacity that smaller conservation organizations typically lack. This market-making function is essential for converting ecological outcomes into financial flows that sustain long-term restoration efforts.

The Role of Private Capital in Climate Solutions

The alliance structure exemplifies emerging models for blending public and private resources in pursuit of climate and development objectives. Trafigura provides the primary financial backing, bringing commercial discipline, market access, and capital deployment capacity. The ICCF Group and Conservation International contribute technical expertise, stakeholder coordination, and environmental safeguards. National governments provide policy frameworks, land access, and community mobilization. Local communities supply labor, traditional knowledge, and long-term stewardship.

This multi-stakeholder approach addresses a critical challenge in climate finance: how to move beyond relatively small-scale, donor-funded interventions toward landscape-level restoration that operates at the pace and scale necessary to meaningfully impact global carbon cycles. By treating carbon removal as a bankable commodity rather than a charitable outcome, the alliance creates incentives for sustained investment and professional management.

The model also demonstrates how private sector participation can accelerate climate action without displacing public sector responsibility. Governments remain central to the alliance through their policy-making authority, land management roles, and revenue-sharing agreements. Communities retain ownership of their lands and resources while gaining new economic opportunities. Private capital provides the financial resources and market connectivity that neither governments nor communities could supply independently.

John Gantt, CEO of the ICCF Group, emphasized this collaborative dimension: “We are thrilled to see the Miombo Restoration Alliance driving large-scale, native-species restoration. We are excited to advance this alliance alongside tremendous public and private sector partners, led by 11 African governments.”

Technical Infrastructure and Monitoring

The alliance has invested significantly in building robust technical infrastructure to ensure project quality and transparency. The addition of Carbon Direct as scientific and project design advisor brings sophisticated expertise in carbon accounting methodologies, baseline setting, and monitoring protocols. Carbon Direct’s involvement helps ensure that projects adhere to the highest standards for quantifying carbon removal and that credit issuance accurately reflects real-world sequestration.

Terraspect’s role as payments infrastructure provider addresses another critical dimension: ensuring transparent and traceable distribution of revenues to communities and governments. In contexts where financial infrastructure may be limited and trust between stakeholders varies, having an independent platform for managing disbursements reduces transaction costs and enhances accountability. Community members can track their payments, governments can verify compliance with benefit-sharing agreements, and investors can confirm that funds flow as intended.

This emphasis on monitoring and verification reflects lessons learned from earlier phases of voluntary carbon markets, where inadequate oversight and verification led to quality concerns that undermined market credibility. By building rigorous systems from the project outset, the alliance aims to avoid these pitfalls and establish new benchmarks for integrity in nature-based carbon removal.

Government Leadership and Policy Alignment

The alliance benefits from strong political backing across participating countries. Heads of state from Mozambique, Malawi, and Botswana have publicly endorsed the initiative, recognizing its potential to advance national climate goals while generating economic benefits for rural populations.

President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi of Mozambique characterized the alliance as “investing not only in the restoration of one of Africa’s most vital ecosystems, but also in the future of Mozambique and the wider region.” President Lazarus Chakwera of Malawi emphasized how the alliance aligns with national priorities for “promoting investments in ecosystem services and landscape restoration across the region.”

This government leadership provides crucial political support for long-term project implementation. Restoration initiatives spanning 40-year timeframes require stable policy environments, consistent administrative cooperation, and ongoing political commitment through multiple electoral cycles. Having presidential-level endorsement helps insulate projects from political volatility and signals to communities and investors alike that restoration is a national priority.

The alliance also builds on the foundation established by the Miombo Woodlands Declaration, signed by 11 SADC countries in 2022 under Mozambique’s leadership. This declaration established principles for sustainable management of Miombo resources and created political momentum for transboundary cooperation. The Restoration Alliance translates these high-level commitments into concrete action, channeling financial resources toward implementation.

Broader Implications for Nature-Based Climate Solutions

The Miombo Restoration Alliance’s launch comes at a pivotal moment for nature-based climate solutions globally. After years of enthusiasm about the potential for ecosystems to contribute to climate mitigation, the field has faced increasing scrutiny over the quality and integrity of nature-based carbon credits. Concerns about over-crediting, impermanence, and inadequate community benefit have undermined confidence in some segments of the voluntary carbon market.

The alliance’s approach directly addresses these concerns through its emphasis on native species restoration (rather than monoculture plantations), comprehensive community benefit-sharing, alignment with Article 6 standards, and investment in robust monitoring infrastructure. If successful, these projects could help restore credibility to nature-based carbon markets while demonstrating pathways for mobilizing private capital at landscape scale.

The model also has potential applicability beyond the Miombo ecosystem. Similar dry tropical forests exist across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, many facing comparable threats from degradation and deforestation. The frameworks, methodologies, and partnership structures developed through the Miombo initiative could be adapted to other contexts, multiplying impact across multiple continents.

Moreover, the alliance’s integration of restoration with agricultural systems through agroforestry offers a replicable model for addressing one of the fundamental drivers of forest loss: competition between conservation and food production. By demonstrating that these objectives can be complementary, the alliance provides a template for sustainable landscape management that could influence policy and practice far beyond its initial project sites.

Challenges and Future Outlook

Despite its promising design and strong backing, the alliance faces significant implementation challenges. Restoration at the planned scale requires sustained coordination across multiple countries, hundreds of communities, diverse stakeholder groups, and complex technical systems. Political changes, economic shocks, climate impacts, or market fluctuations could all affect project viability over the 40-year timeframe.

Carbon market dynamics remain uncertain, with prices volatile and demand dependent on evolving corporate commitments and government policies. While high-quality removal credits currently command premium prices, future market conditions could shift. The alliance will need to maintain rigorous quality standards while also managing costs to ensure financial sustainability across different price scenarios.

Community engagement will be crucial but challenging. With 100,000 community members participating across four countries, ensuring equitable benefit distribution, meaningful participation in decision-making, and long-term commitment requires sophisticated social infrastructure and sustained relationship-building. Past conservation initiatives have sometimes struggled with these dimensions, leading to community opposition or disengagement.

Despite these challenges, the alliance has positioned itself well for success through its comprehensive approach, strong institutional partnerships, and substantial financial backing. The first projects will provide valuable lessons that can inform future expansion across the alliance’s broader network of 11 countries.

Hauman indicated that credits should eventually flow from projects across all participating alliance countries, not just the four initial project nations. This suggests significant potential for scaling beyond the current $1 billion investment and 675,000 hectares, potentially affecting millions of hectares across southern and central Africa.

As climate urgency intensifies and natural climate solutions gain prominence in national and corporate climate strategies, initiatives like the Miombo Restoration Alliance may increasingly represent the mainstream of climate finance rather than innovative experiments. The coming years will reveal whether this model can deliver on its ambitious promises while creating genuine benefits for the ecosystems and communities at its heart.

Conclusion

The Miombo Restoration Alliance’s launch of four carbon removal projects marks a significant milestone in efforts to channel private capital toward African woodland restoration. With backing from Trafigura, technical support from leading conservation organizations, and partnership with 11 national governments, the initiative demonstrates how public-private cooperation can mobilize resources at scales commensurate with environmental challenges.

The $1 billion investment commitment, revenue-sharing arrangements benefiting 100,000 community members and farmers, alignment with Article 6 standards, and potential for $2.5 billion in carbon credit revenues collectively illustrate a new paradigm for conservation finance. Rather than treating restoration as a cost to be minimized, the alliance recognizes it as an investment opportunity that can generate returns for investors while creating value for communities and advancing global climate goals.

As the projects move from design to implementation over the coming years, they will test whether this model can deliver its promised outcomes: verified carbon removal, restored ecosystems, strengthened livelihoods, and sustained private investment in nature-based climate solutions. Success could inspire similar initiatives across other ecosystems and geographies, multiplying impact and accelerating the global transition toward sustainable land management. The stakes are high, both for the Miombo woodlands themselves and for the future of carbon markets as a mechanism for financing climate action.

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By: Montel Kamau

Serrari Financial Analyst

30th January, 2026