As the world faces a growing climate crisis, Africa’s forests play a vital role in combating environmental degradation. Restoring tropical forests is the most readily available and scalable solution the world has now to capture large amounts of carbon, while also delivering benefits of restored ecosystem services and economic opportunities. Africa has more degraded tropical forest land than any other continent.
Technology-enabled operations are crucial for reforestation in Africa, where forests face increasing threats from deforestation. Advanced technologies ensure that reforestation projects are effective, transparent, and scalable. By providing accurate and transparent data on carbon capture and biodiversity, technology can optimise project efficiency and generate the data to help secure long-term funding through carbon markets. As demand for impactful reforestation initiatives grows, technology will be key to driving significant change.
There are many companies and organisations focused on restoring forests around the world, and a growing suite of technology advances to layer onto this operational work. Rainforest Builder is one of the leading organisations in forestry restoration that is focused on addressing these challenges but offering scalable blueprint for climate resilience and sustainable development.
Carbon Markets
Restoring tropical forests requires large investments to fund the capital expenditures and ongoing operations. The carbon markets provide a funding solution for companies doing the restoration work. In order to access investment from the carbon markets, reforestation projects must be registered on an approved standard, such as Verra, a prominent example among many others.
The project must receive approval at the start of the project and throughout the project’s operation. These approval processes verify that the project is capturing the amount of carbon it claims to capture, and that it has the ecological and socioeconomic impacts it claims to have. This relies on robust and accurate data about project activities, generated by real progress and impact on-the-ground.
The role of technology in reforestation
Technology plays a large role in measuring and monitoring reforestation projects and impacts. Companies can identify potential areas to restore through analysing satellite imagery to understand degradation patterns, as well as overlay weather pattern data to understand the feasibility of replanting trees in certain times of the year.
Employing remote technology solutions is one way to get better data about reforestation and other nature-based restoration methods. But applying technology closer to the operations is also critical to get ground-truth data, from capturing imagery of replanted forests with drones, to setting up tools to monitor biodiversity changes. Moving the sector towards real-time data – and being able to measure and confirm that the carbon capture is quantified and remains stored – are goals for all companies doing nature restoration work as well as the standards and organisations which provide governance to the sector.
Rainforest Builder leverages the latest science, technology, and reforestation practices to maximise carbon drawdown and biodiversity restoration while fostering community partnerships.
Model outputs and remote sensing data are enhanced by teams that are measuring trees. Bioacoustics monitoring using a passive sensor network, camera trapping, and eDNA results are bolstered by expert on-ground surveys for birds, large mammals and trees. This approach of technology-enabled operations powers the organisation’s data collection and continuous research and development to hone its restoration approach.
“Dedicated operations allow us to apply restoration, social, and data sciences in a localised way,” says Ed Stephenson, CEO of Rainforest Builder. “With nearly 2,000 people employed in Sierra Leone and Ghana, we are restoring forest ecosystems while capturing critical data to drive impact.”
Project Akwaaba, in Ghana, was one of the first projects in the world successfully validated by a Validation and Verification Body (VVB) under US-based Verra’s newest methodology for reforestation projects, VM0047.
Following the VVB’s successful validation, Rainforest Builder’s project is now on the brink of final registration, which will allow its project to sell carbon credits, gathering further investment in the project which in turn invests in local communities in Ghana.
Transparency and accountability
Companies with emphasis on transparency and accountability are critical for attracting long-term investment in nature restoration. This emphasis on transparency and accountability is critical in a market often criticised for greenwashing. Governments in Africa play a crucial role in developing the nature restoration sector.
International climate experts recognise Ghana, alongside Tanzania and South Africa, as having the most mature and robust regulatory frameworks for voluntary carbon markets in Africa.
In 2022, Ghana introduced its Framework on International Carbon Markets and Non-Market Approaches. This comprehensive framework not only solidifies Ghana’s leadership but also provides a solid foundation for projects like Rainforest Builders to thrive.
Further solidifying Ghana’s position as a regional leader, the country is making significant strides in operationalising Article 6.2. Ghana has taken groundbreaking steps by becoming the first country to launch a carbon market framework, develop a national carbon market registry, authorise carbon projects, and submit an initial report to the UNFCCC’s centralised accounting and reporting platform.
The stakes are high. Without sustainable interventions, Africa’s forests face the dual threats of deforestation and biodiversity loss, with dire consequences for global carbon cycles and local ecosystems.