Carbon

The financial instrument underwriting the bioregional economy.

A Verra-registered ARR carbon project under validation. VM0047. CCB Gold Level. 40,000 hectares.

VCS 5375 · Under Validation VM0047 v1.1 CCB Gold — Climate + Community Crediting 2026–2066 Monitoring 100 years

The land is degrading. Without intervention, it keeps degrading. That is the baseline. That is what we are here to change.

The methodology

Verra VCS Methodology VM0047 v1.1 — Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation.

Applied under a grouped project structure that allows initial Project Activity Instances to be registered and scaled progressively across the catchment. A census-based approach is used in residential and cropland areas. An area-based approach is applied in reforestation zones.

Three years of pre-development work precede any tree in the ground: scoping, feasibility, PDD authorship, stakeholder engagement across six Traditional Authority chiefdoms. The PDD was registered on the Verra registry as VCS 5375 and is under validation, targeting CCB Gold — Climate and Community.

VCS Project ID	5375
Standards	VCS v4.7 + CCB Standards v3.1
CCB Level	Gold — Climate and Community
Validation / Verification Body	Independent VVB · Appointed
Status	Under Validation
Crediting period	1 January 2026 – 31 December 2066 · 40 years
Monitoring commitment	100 years
Methodology	VM0047 v1.1
Leakage module	VMD0054
Additionality tool	VT0008
Registry	Verra VCS 5375 ↗

Why this land qualifies

The science is not new. The mechanism to act on it is.

The Sabie and Sand River catchments are experiencing active degradation. Population growth, subsistence agriculture, and vegetation loss have destabilised soils across the mid-catchment. No equivalent organised planting programme operates at catchment scale.

The project does not displace existing land use — it fills the gap the degradation created. Land conversion has not taken place as part of any masterplan. Replanting is small-scale and not covered by any existing offset mechanism.

The science is not new. The mechanism to act on it is.

The carbon yield

Phase 1 projected sequestration — 2.5 million trees across 40,000 hectares.

Figures sourced from the C4 EcoSolutions carbon sequestration model, applied in the PDD. These are ex-ante projections from the validated methodology. The project is operational from January 2026. First credit issuance is projected from 2029 onwards.

	Phase 1
Project area	~40,000 ha
Trees planted	~2.5 million
Cropland density	100 trees / ha
Homestead density	50 trees / ha
Gross ER (40 yr)	~9.3 million tCO₂e
Net VCUs after deductions (40 yr)	~7.3 million tCO₂e
Net VCUs (20 yr)	~3.25 million tCO₂e
Net VCUs (10 yr)	~665,967 tCO₂e

Sequestration rates: croplands 6.59 tCO₂e/ha, homesteads 3.73 tCO₂e/ha. Gross ER before deductions: ~9.3M tCO₂e. Net VCUs after mortality, 16% Verra buffer, and leakage deductions: ~7.3M tCO₂e.

The species

The marula is the anchor species: native to the Lowveld, drought-hardy, culturally significant, commercially fruiting.

It does not require irrigation. It does not require a new agricultural system. It grows in the kind of soil and the kind of light that already exists in the homestead gardens where the project plants. A complement of indigenous hardwoods and household fruit species is planted alongside it.

A handful of clean marula kernels, hand-extracted by custodians, Mpumalanga 2026 — **Commercially fruiting.** Marula kernels — hand-extracted by custodians, Mpumalanga, March 2026.

Indigenous — Planted thus far

Native Lowveld hardwoods and fruit-bearing species

Marula

Sclerocarya birrea

Water Berry

Syzygium cordatum

Brown Ivory

Berchemia zeyheri

Kei Apple

Dovyalis caffra

Silver Cluster Leaf

Terminalia sericea

Weeping Boer-bean

Schotia brachypetala

Wild Mango

Cordyla africana

Jackal-berry

Diospyros mespiliformis

Fruit & Nut — Household revenue

Fruit species for homestead food security and income

Grapefruit

Citrus paradisi

Mandarin / Naartjie

Citrus reticulata

Macadamia

Macadamia integrifolia

Species planted thus far. Selection was validated with Traditional Authorities during the FPIC process. Marula trees were gifted ceremonially to all six signed Traditional Authorities at the conclusion of consultations — not as a project output, but as a formal act of partnership.

Permanence

Drought-resistant species. Dispersed plots. Community incentive that compounds over time.

The species anchoring this project are among the most drought-resistant and longest-lived in the Lowveld. The marula lives for a hundred years or more. The project area is dispersed across residential and cropland plots typically ranging from 1 to 50 hectares — which means fire risk is distributed, not concentrated. A single event cannot affect more than a contained area.

Community incentive is the primary permanence mechanism. The custodian model transfers biological assets — trees — to households from the day of planting, with product revenue following as the trees mature. From year three, custodian households participate in a carbon credit revenue share.

The people who live alongside these trees have a financial incentive to protect them. That incentive compounds over time. It does not expire when the carbon contract does.

One marula tree. One household. Ninety years of fruit. The tree keeps the soil. The soil keeps the river.

Market positioning

Designed for both the voluntary carbon market and the South African compliance market (COAS).

The financial model has been stress-tested at COAS floor pricing — the project remains viable at compliance rates without voluntary market premium. The project does not depend on voluntary market buoyancy to deliver returns.

The project is pursuing Article 6.2 sovereign authorisation from South Africa's Designated Focal Point (DFFE), which would allow credits to be recognised as Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes for use in other countries' NDCs. The Extended Letter of Approval application is pending. COAS registration is in progress.

The technical team

Independent science. Independent validation. Independent finance.

Three organisations carry the technical and financial integrity of the project. None are owned by the proponent. All are engaged under formal scope of work. Full details are available in the PDD.

Carbon Technical Advisor

C4 EcoSolutions (Pty) Ltd

South Africa

400+ projects across 130 countries since 2006. Africa's first validated ecosystem restoration PDD (2008). Responsible for scoping, feasibility, FPIC design, PDD authorship, CCB certification, VM0047 methodology application, and MRV system design.

Validation / Verification Body

Independent VVB

Engaged under VCS + CCB

Independent Validation/Verification Body (VVB). Engaged under Verra VCS and CCB standards for third-party validation of the PDD and ongoing verification throughout the crediting period.

Project Finance Advisor

CapSol Partners GmbH

Switzerland

Financial modelling, transaction structure, valuation, and fundraising implementation. 18 years working together; $3.5 billion USD in transaction experience across real estate, renewable energy, and sustainable finance.

Timeline

Three years of pre-development. Pilot planting underway. Credits from 2029.

Feasibility study	Completed · Nov 2023
Verra VCS registration	Completed · Dec 2024
FPIC — 6 Traditional Authorities	Completed · Jun 2025
PDD authorship	Completed · Oct 2025
PDD under public commentary	Current
Under Validation	Current
Pilot planting commencement	Mar 2026
GHG verification and registration	2026 · Year 0
Certification and first credits issued	2029–2031

Carbon market partners, pre-sale and offtake enquiries, and technical due diligence requests are welcome.

Detailed financial modelling, project documentation, and the full PDD are available under NDA.

Connect with the team → Verra Registry ↗