Amazon has announced a carbon removal project in the Brazilian Rainforest in partnership with The Nature Conservancy (TNC). The project will help 3,000 small farmers produce sustainable agriculture through reforestation and regenerative agroforestry.
Known as The Agroforestry and Restoration Accelerator, Amazon and TNC anticipate it will remove up to 10 million metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere through 2050, which will help offset Amazon emissions.
The Pará state has been selected as the project’s location. It is home to 9% of the world’s tropical forest, which at 40%, has experienced the highest loss rate in Brazil.
Amazon’s funds will provide direct technical assistance to farmers. At the same time, TNC and other environmental nonprofits will support farmers on the ground. They hope to restore 50,000 acres. Small farmers will also learn how to diversify production and reach new markets to advance economic development.
Amazon, a co-founder, and signatory of the Climate Pledge is committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2040. To do so, they are focused on improving the carbon credit market, and this project is a means to do just that.
By improving the infrastructure related to carbon credits, Amazon believes it can drive the carbon market further as a quantifiable, ongoing, and socially beneficial investment. They plan to start through satellite imagery, advanced algorithms, and additional supervision.
Right now, the global carbon market is poised to reach $22T by 2050.
Senior Scientist at Amazon James Mulligan told Mongabay that Amazon believes there are “…more than 40,000 farmers who could benefit from a program like this in the region, and that would take a significant investment. We will set up the basic structure of the project and set up the program to scale. In order to scale, it needs additional investments which could come from different sources.”
As such, the collaborative partnership between Amazon and TNC is only the beginning. The announcement of this project is a win for Amazon, NGOs, farmers, investors, and quite frankly, the global carbon market.