Companies with land-intensive operations have a powerful imperative and obligation to protect the ecosystems that fuel their operations. This is reflected in growing pressure to address Scope 3 and land-sector emissions across food, agriculture, and commodity supply chains and corporate climate strategies are beginning to show a drive to go beyond avoidance, to high-quality carbon removals.
Now, in line with new Science-based Targets Initiatives Forest Land and Agriculture Goals (FLAG), regenerative agroforestry is emerging as the most promising nature-based solutions combining productivity with forest restoration and carbon sequestration while delivering measurable climate and biodiversity outcomes.
What is regenerative agroforestry?
Put simply, regenerative agroforestry is a land management technique that uses native trees, crops or livestock in a way that benefits and restores ecosystems while still being economically productive.
Properly integrated regenerative agroforestry can provide a plethora of benefits.
These including:
- improving soil health through nutrient enrichment
- increasing the amount of water land can retain
- supporting native biodiversity
- helping ecosystems become more resilient.
How is regenerative agroforestry different from traditional agroforestry?
Conventional agroforestry has one primary goal: to produce economic value from land use.
Traditionally this is achieved using one crop (known as a monoculture) for vast plantations of a single species of plant or tree. These are often non-native species and have historically led to the destruction of previously thriving ecosystems by razing native bush and forest and replanting crops such as palm oil, soy bean or avocado.
Regenerative agroforestry focuses on productive land use with native crops that maintain and restore healthy ecosystems while producing economic value.
Why regenerative agroforestry matters for climate
Regenerative agroforestry is an important tool to address climate breakdown. It can remove and store carbon while restoring ecological functions that healthy landscapes depend on. At a time when companies and policymakers are increasingly focused on high-integrity climate solutions, regenerative agroforestry is becoming a key practice and channel of investment.
Carbon removals that go beyond avoided emissions
Over time, trees and soils act as natural carbon sinks. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in trunks, branches, leaves, and roots. This stored carbon (or above-ground and below-ground biomass) stays locked away for decades when ecosystems are managed sustainably.
At the same time, regenerative agroforestry systems improve soil health, gradually increasing the amount of carbon stored underground too. Roots, fallen leaves and other plant material enriches the soil with nutrients, creating an additional and much overlooked carbon reservoir. Together, above-ground biomass, below-ground biomass, and soil carbon compound to deliver significant long-term carbon sequestration.
As demand grows for credible climate solutions, agroforestry carbon removals are becoming an increasingly important component of the broader land-based carbon removals market. Unlike monoculture plantations that focus on a single species, regenerative agroforestry uses native trees, crops, and sometimes livestock and animals within productive landscapes to restore diversity. This can improve ecosystem stability and long-term carbon sequestration.
The climate value of these systems extends beyond carbon storage alone. Regenerative agroforestry can improve water retention, reduce soil erosion, support biodiversity, and increase resilience to droughts, floods, and other climate-related stresses. These co-benefits are becoming increasingly important as businesses seek climate solutions that deliver measurable environmental outcomes while strengthening the long-term health of the landscapes on which they depend.
Supporting corporate decarbonisation
The climate impact of agricultural production is facing growing scrutiny from investors, regulators, customers, and standard-setting bodies. For many companies, particularly those operating in food, agriculture, consumer goods, and commodity supply chains, emissions associated with land use represent a significant share of their overall carbon footprint.
Expectations around climate disclosure continue to rise, and organisations are being challenged to reduce direct emissions and address emissions embedded within their supply chains. This has increased interest in solutions that can tackle corporate land-sector emissions through agroforestry and other regenerative land-use approaches.
Regenerative agroforestry carbon credits provide a credible channel for companies to support projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere while delivering wider environmental and social benefits.
This is especially important for companies aligning with the SBTi FLAG agroforestry framework. For businesses with significant land-sector exposure, supporting agroforestry carbon removals can help align climate action with goals around land-use accounting and supply-chain decarbonisation.
