Restoring native forest and improving family incomes through participative reforestation
In Upper Guinea, families have long relied on fallow periods to let land recover between crops of rice, peanuts and fonio. As the population has grown, those fallows have shortened from 8–10 years in the 1970s to 3–5 years by the 1990s, depleting the soil. Fires set for land preparation, pest control and hunting sweep through every one to three years and kill young trees. Regrowth is cut for firewood, fodder and building material, partly because trees are widely seen as competing with crops. The result is degraded grassland and wooded savanna where forest could grow. Without income from restoring their land, families have little reason to let trees return.
To learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals verified by the standard for this project, please check the project's registry link above.
The European Soil Revitalisation Programme supports farmers across Europe in adopting regenerative agricultural practices designed to restore soil health and improve ecosystem resilience. The programme promotes a range of approaches, including reduced to zero tillage, improved cover cropping, and the mandatory application of the NUTRIGEO®L biostimulant to enhance soil quality. Reduced tillage limits mechanical soil disturbance and improves structural stability, while cover crops protect soil, increase water retention, and strengthen nutrient content. NUTRIGEO®L supports plant growth by improving soil physico-chemical characteristics and microbial diversity. The biostimulant is produced by French company Gaïago. The programme is certified under the Gold Standard and follows the Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) Framework Methodology, specifically the Activity Module on biostimulants for soil revitalisation. It is developed by South Pole and, to date, implemented in France and Belgium by Gaïago.
The programme contributes to environmental restoration by increasing soil organic carbon stocks through regenerative farming practices. By improving soil structure, fertility and health, these practices help store carbon in the soil while strengthening yields in farming systems. Full enrollment across all 727 participating farms will scale the initiative to over 39,282 hectares - removing forecasted 264,174 tCO₂e over its first crediting period (roughly 2.5 tCO₂e per hectare annually). The programme also strengthens local agricultural communities, with 1,972 stakeholders trained through a dedicated curriculum on soil revitalisation and agronomy to date. The project applies the FAO's GSOC MRV protocol and is aligned with the RECSOIL Initiative of the FAO.
