Miombo Restoration Alliance launches first Article 6 carbon removal projects across four African countries

The four Article 6 carbon removal projects are expected to remove more than 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents over their 40-year lifetimes and cover a combined 675,000 hectares of Miombo woodland, according to the Alliance. Total direct expenditure and investment across the projects is estimated at more than $1 billion, placing the initiative among the most capital-intensive nature-based carbon removal programs globally.

The Alliance was launched at New York Climate Week in 2024 by commodities group Trafigura, a consortium of non-governmental organizations and 11 central and southern African governments. It is structured as a public-private partnership focused on generating carbon removal credits under the Paris Agreement’s Article 6 framework.

Projects are being developed under a single ecological and governance framework and will issue credits through native-species restoration and agroforestry activities, with revenue-sharing agreements benefiting local communities, farmers and host governments, the Alliance said.

Alliance partners began deploying capital in 2025, exceeding their initial investment targets for the year. The group also expanded its technical network, adding Carbon Direct as scientific and project-design advisor and engaging Terraspect to support traceable local payments.

From a carbon-market perspective, the launch is notable as one of the first multi-country initiatives to move forest-based Article 6 removal supply into implementation at scale, following several years dominated by readiness frameworks, pilot programs and political declarations.

The first four projects span a mix of restoration and agroforestry approaches:

Malawi – Miombo Malawi Restoration Project

A 550,000-ha landscape program incorporating conservation and restoration activities, including one of Africa’s largest native-species nurseries, expected to reach an annual capacity of 11 million seedlings. The project also includes community agroforestry, a minimum 10,000-ha sustainable timber zone and direct revenue-sharing arrangements with communities and government.

Zambia – Miombo Zambia Agroforestry Project

An agroforestry program working with more than 45,000 farmers in the country’s Western Province to rehabilitate degraded land and support local cashew value-chain development, with participating farmers earning income from both carbon credits and agroforestry outputs.

Mozambique – Miombo Mozambique Restoration Project

A restoration initiative developed with the Gorongosa Restoration Project, expanding activities across up to 25,000 ha of degraded Miombo woodland and Afromontane rainforest in the buffer zone surrounding Gorongosa National Park.

Tanzania – Miombo Lake Victoria Agroforestry Project

A program delivered in collaboration with Trees for the Future and Component Earth that scales long-running smallholder agroforestry efforts along Lake Victoria’s Tanzanian shoreline, using the Forest Garden Approach to improve incomes, restore soils and support biodiversity recovery.

Hannah Hauman, head of carbon at Trafigura, said the projects demonstrate the Alliance’s framework for mobilizing private capital for restoration under Article 6 and moving “from design into delivery.”

For carbon markets, the projects add visibility to long-dated, jurisdiction-aligned removal supply at a time when buyers are placing greater emphasis on governance, benefit-sharing and host-country authorization frameworks for nature-based removals. The Alliance did not disclose timelines for host-country authorization, issuance or first credit deliveries for the four projects.

All four projects are structured around 40-year lifetimes, in line with the VM0047 carbon methodology, and are expected to generate credits over multiple decades as restoration and agroforestry activities scale and mature, contributing to long-dated Article 6 removal supply.

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