Three pioneering community-based land restoration projects have become the first from Ethiopia to be selected by the Carbon Accelerator Programme for the Environment (CAPE) – a UK-backed initiative which aims to mobilise investment into initiatives that reduce emissions, restore ecosystems and benefit local communities.
The three – delivered with the support of the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Ethiopia – are AfriScout Regen, Chifra Landscape Restoration Project and The People’s Chaka. They will receive project development and transaction advisory services support to help them progress to investment ready stage.
CAPE was launched in November 2024 by FSD Africa, the UK-backed financial sector development agency, in partnership with the African Natural Capital Alliance (ANCA) and Finance Earth. A core focus is supporting equitable financing structures that ensure local communities receive long term benefit from the income generated from the sale of carbon credits linked to ecosystem restoration.
With 62% of Africa’s GDP reliant on natural capital, CAPE aims to build confidence among domestic and international investors in Africa’s nature-based carbon markets by prioritising high-integrity projects with strong community linkages, robust biodiversity outcomes and credible carbon methodologies.
The three projects were selected from over 40 applications:
AfriScout Regen
This is a project which works with pastoral communities to restore the vast rangelands where they graze their herds and to increase livestock productivity. The project, which covers an area of 1.3 million hectares of grassland and more than 44,000 households, blends time-honoured, adaptive grazing practices with modern technology through an app combining satellite data and AI to guide the pastoralists on where and when they move their herds.
By measuring and verifying the carbon sequestration impact of these practices, AfriScout aims to issue carbon credits to fund future activities. AfriScout is a social enterprise of the global impact organisation Global Communities.
Chifra Landscape Restoration Project
It is a community-based land restoration initiative in the Afar region developed by World Vision Australia, in partnership with World Vision Ethiopia. The project utilises Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), a low-cost and sustainable technique which involves growing trees and shrubs from existing stumps, roots, and seeds, alongside new planting.
The aim is to restore over 100,000 hectares of degraded rangelands, enhance biodiversity and improve pastoral livelihoods across Ethiopia, while generating a scalable and credible source of high-quality carbon credits.
The People’s Chaka
This is a community-led land restoration project in southern and south-western Ethiopia which aims to reverse deforestation across 7,000 hectares in a highly biodiverse ecosystem (with a potential to scale up to 50,000 hectares), prevent land erosion, and remove 2.3m tonnes of CO2e while also strengthening rural livelihoods through a revenue-sharing mechanism.
The project has been co-developed by Menschen für Menschen Foundation (MFM), an NGO with more than 40 years of experience working alongside rural Ethiopian communities, and goodcarbon, a Berlin-based nature-based solutions developer.
The projects were selected for their development readiness, impact potential and alignment with investor and carbon buyer expectations. Together they demonstrate how community-led carbon initiatives can generate climate and biodiversity outcomes while strengthening local economies and sustainable development at both national and community level.
“What excites me about these projects is how practical they are, and that is exactly what CAPE is here to prove. This is about deploying practical solution, working with people who depend on the ecosystem services to restore it and be compensated fairly for it. When rangelands recover and forests grow back, livelihoods strengthen. Carbon finance simply becomes the way that effort is recognised, sustained, and shown to be a viable investment,” said Reshma Shah, Carbon Markets Lead at FSD Africa.
“For carbon projects to succeed over the long term, they must meaningfully improve livelihoods and share value fairly with the communities at their core,” said James Mansfield, Managing Director at Finance Earth. “These Ethiopian projects demonstrate how strong benefit-sharing structures can support sustainable incomes and create carbon assets that endure.”
“CAPE Ethiopia is an exciting new initiative that supports the development of Ethiopia’s carbon sector. For the UK, this represents a modern development partnership in action: investing in high‑impact local enterprises that meet community needs while safeguarding vital natural resources,” said Dr. Nina Hissen, Lead for Climate and Nature at FCDO Ethiopia. “At the same time, CAPE Ethiopia connects these communities to global carbon markets, helping them diversify livelihoods and unlock new, sustainable revenue streams.”