How carbon works
Restore. Measure.
Verify. Retire.
Carbon projects turn measured climate outcomes into traceable credits. Credible projects also depend on legitimate rights, community consent, sound science and independent assurance.
Start with one credit ↓One verified climate outcome.
A carbon credit represents one verified tonne of greenhouse-gas emissions reduced or removed against an established baseline. Each credit is uniquely recorded in a registry. When a buyer uses it, the credit is retired so it cannot be sold or claimed again.
Credits should complement—not replace—credible action to reduce emissions.
An unbroken chain of authority, consent and rights.
In Zambia, a community forest-carbon project is not created merely by identifying forest. It is built through the complete chain below.
Traditional leadership
Customary land authority
Community + FPIC
Free, prior and informed communal consent
Recognised CFMG
Representative community governance
Forestry Department
Forest and applicable carbon rights
Project partnership
Roles, safeguards and benefit sharing
Carbon-market approvals
Design, validation and authorisation
Implementation
ANR, monitoring and community oversight
Verified credits
Issuance, sale, retirement and benefit distribution
The community is not adjacent to the project. The community is part of its architecture.
Assisted Natural Regeneration
Helping nature recover.
ANR accelerates natural recovery by protecting existing seedlings, coppice, root systems and native vegetation while addressing the pressures that prevent regeneration. Enrichment planting can support recovery where it is needed.
Degraded landscape
Existing regenerative potential is assessed.
Threats managed
Fire, grazing and repeated cutting are addressed.
Native woodland recovering
Natural regeneration is protected, measured and maintained.
Illustrative carbon accounting
Only the measured difference can become a credit.
A baseline estimates what would happen without the project. Project outcomes are measured against it, then conservatively adjusted for leakage, uncertainty and reversal risk before eligible removals are verified.
Three phases. One accountable process.
Community governance, regulatory compliance and carbon accounting progress together—not as separate workstreams.
Authority, consent and rights
Establish
Traditional leadership, FPIC, CFMG recognition, forest rights and the partnership framework establish the project’s legitimate foundation.
Science, safeguards and approvals
Design
Ecological and socioeconomic assessment informs the baseline, methodology, project design, consultations, validation and government submissions.
Restoration, measurement and value
Deliver
Communities and technical teams implement ANR, monitor outcomes and support independent verification before issuance, sale and retirement.
Developed in Zambia. Accounted for globally.
Zambia’s Green Economy and Climate Change Act, 2024 and Carbon Market Regulations, 2026 establish the national framework for carbon-market activities.
View the regulatory pathway +
Projects must demonstrate environmental integrity, additionality, sustainable-development contribution and regulatory surplus. The applicable pathway then covers government review, stakeholder consultation, community benefit-sharing arrangements where required, validation, monitoring, verification, registry reporting and authorisation to trade.
Projects requesting an Article 6 corresponding adjustment follow additional national accounting and transfer requirements. Projects not requesting one must still follow Zambia’s approval and reporting requirements alongside the applicable voluntary carbon-market standard.
Primary references