The Community Climate Solutions Zambia Carbon Project is a large-scale, multi-decade initiative addressing land degradation across Zambia through ecosystem restoration, sustainable agriculture and carbon sequestration. The project, which spans over 1 million hectares of cropland and rangeland in diverse ecosystems including miombo and mopane woodlands, empowers over 25,000 Zambian subsistence farmer households to reverse soil degradation, deforestation, and stop uncontrolled fires in their communities.

Project implementation follows Verra’s VM0042 methodology to restore degraded landscapes (through fire and biomass management, including rotational grazing) and improve land productivity, including no-till farming, residue retention, optimised fertiliser use and agroforestry using native species. A robust Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system integrates soil sampling, regression analysis, dynamic baselining, remote sensing and geospatial tools to ensure transparent and verifiable carbon accounting. While this project was designed in line with VM0042, scope for the use of the related methodology VM0047 is currently being considered due to market dynamics retaining the same project design.

These combined interventions are expected to sequester over 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO₂e) over the next century, representing potential revenues for communities from over 150 million Verified Carbon Units (VCUs). Beyond carbon gains, projects are restoring degraded rangelands, increasing crop yields and reducing farming costs. Training and enterprise programmes strengthen community capacity, while biodiversity benefits are realised through ecosystem rehabilitation and improved fire and grazing management, aligning climate mitigation with poverty reduction and long-term ecological resilience goals.