The People’s Chaka (Ethiopia)
The People’s Chaka, led by Menschen für Menschen (MfM) and goodcarbon, 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 of Afromontane forest in its initial phase (with potential to scale to 50,000 hectares) and prevent land erosion. Over its 40-year lifetime, it aims to deliver an estimated 2.4 million tonnes of CO₂e while also strengthening rural livelihoods through a revenue-sharing mechanism.
The project’s activities are expected to help safeguard 10 native tree species and 16 endangered animal species while delivering meaningful outcomes for more than 20,000 community members. Benefits flow through integrated programmes spanning healthcare, education, water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH), women’s empowerment, and job creation.
CAPE selected The People’s Chaka for its strong integration of climate, biodiversity and community resilience outcomes, and for the developer’s clear pathway to scale. It offers a model for how high-integrity forest restoration can deliver climate, biodiversity and community resilience outcomes.
Regenerating Forests and Community Resilience in Ethiopia
Developed by World Vision Australia in partnership with World Vision Ethiopia, is a community-based land restoration initiative in the Afar region. 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 livelihoods across Ethiopia, while generating a scalable and credible source of high-quality carbon credits.
Designed as a national ‘Program of Activities’ to enable future scale-up, the project will pilot across 4,500 hectares in Chifra. It is targeting an estimated 700,000 tonnes of CO₂e gross emissions reductions over 30 years. Building on World Vision’s track record of delivering high-integrity nature-based carbon projects, the project has been designed with a strong focus on job creation, local cooperatives, and economic opportunities for women and youth, and its activities will support the protection of seven IUCN red-listed species and more than 60 bird species across a rich ecological landscape. CAPE selected this project for its replicable, community-centred model and the developer’s proven delivery capability. By piloting in the Chifra region and structuring for national scale-up, the project demonstrates how reforestation can simultaneously address ecological degradation and the livelihood needs of communities on the frontline of climate change.
AfriScout Regenerative Grazing Project (Ethiopia)
The AfriScout Regenerative Grazing Project works with pastoral communities to restore the vast rangelands where they graze their herds and to increase livestock productivity. Developed by AfriScout, which is a social enterprise of the global impact organization Global Communities, the project spans 1.3 million hectares of grassland and 47,000 households across Oromia, Somali and South Ethiopia, with the potential to scale to more than four million hectares.
The project blends time-honoured, adaptive grazing practices with modern technology through an app combining satellite data and AI to guide pastoralists on where and when they move their herds. The approach enhances pasture health and biodiversity while strengthening the resilience of pastoral livelihoods in the face of climate variability. By measuring and verifying the carbon sequestration impact of these practices, Afriscout aims to issue carbon credits to fund future activities.
CAPE selected this project for its use of cutting-edge grazing intelligence; transforming traditional practices into climate-smart solutions that restore rangelands and secure livelihoods in a complex pastoral setting.