Acoalition led by the global commodities firm Trafigura is set to invest over $1 billion in four pioneering carbon removal projects across Southern and Central Africa, with a long-term ambition to restore over half a million hectares of Miombo woodland and remove an estimated 50 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide over four decades.
The investment is part of the Miombo Restoration Alliance, a multilateral initiative involving 11 African governments and co-convened by non-profit organisations such as the International Conservation Caucus Foundation and Conservation International. Announced during New York Climate Week in 2024, the alliance focuses on restoring the Miombo woodlands, an expansive and ecologically significant biome that supports more than 300 million people. The woodland stretches across countries such as Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania and Malawi, all of which are hosting the first phase of the projects.
The initiative reflects a growing continental consensus that carbon markets can serve as a vital mechanism for mobilising private capital to fund sustainable land use. The strategy is especially pertinent as African nations face dwindling official development assistance and seek resilient pathways to transition towards low-emission economies without compromising developmental goals.
According to Hannah Hauman, Trafigura’s Global Head of Carbon Trading, the company will serve as the primary financial underwriter for the early-stage development of the projects while actively seeking to draw additional partners into the alliance. She highlighted that carbon markets are not only essential for unlocking long-term investment but can also foster equitable frameworks that ensure local communities benefit from the natural assets they steward.
The four projects span an area of approximately 675,000 hectares and include a significant reforestation initiative in Malawi which hosts one of the largest nurseries for native tree species on the continent. In Zambia, an agroforestry initiative aims to revitalise degraded land and directly benefit more than 45,000 farmers by integrating tree planting with agricultural productivity in a model that aligns climate and livelihood objectives.
Revenue-sharing agreements have been formalised with approximately 100,000 local stakeholders including smallholder farmers, community associations and the participating governments. These agreements will distribute project-generated income at variable rates ranging from 10 to 60 percent, depending on project structure and scale. This model challenges extractive paradigms that have historically marginalised African agency in global environmental markets and foregrounds an approach rooted in co-ownership and reciprocal benefit.
The carbon credits generated from these projects are expected to be classified as high-quality, reflecting rigorous environmental integrity and co-benefit standards. While prices are likely to fluctuate based on buyer and verification criteria, similar credits have previously sold for over $50 per metric tonne, implying potential revenues that could surpass $2.5 billion over the project life cycle. The credits will be marketed to both state and corporate actors seeking credible offsets to meet climate obligations under frameworks such as the Paris Agreement.
The alliance is also exploring the replication of this model in additional countries including Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa. This broader engagement underscores a pan-African approach to ecosystem restoration and carbon finance that seeks to challenge historical asymmetries in environmental governance and reassert the role of African institutions and communities in shaping climate solutions.
While the initiative signals growing sophistication in Africa’s participation in global carbon markets, it also raises complex questions regarding land use, tenure security and the equitable distribution of climate finance. For these projects to deliver durable benefits, transparency in monitoring, community consent mechanisms and legal safeguards must be rigorously enforced.
The Miombo Restoration Alliance, through its decentralised yet coordinated structure, appears poised to offer a counterpoint to more centralised top-down climate finance approaches. It provides an opportunity to reframe climate mitigation efforts not as an external imposition but as a locally grounded and continentally articulated response to ecological and economic imperatives.
The growing convergence of conservation finance, carbon market architecture and African development agendas is redefining the narrative from one of vulnerability to one of agency. This initiative, if managed inclusively and transparently, may represent a new model for climate partnerships in the Global South, anchored in African priorities, capacities and landscapes.
