Rarakau Rainforest Carbon Project — Māori-Led REDD+ (Southland, New Zealand)

In 2008, the Rowallan Alton (Māori) Incorporation — landowners in western Southland at the southern tip of New Zealand's South Island — began working with carbon-finance developer Ekos to keep 738 hectares of tall indigenous rainforest standing rather than logging it. The land sits on cliffs above Te Waewae Bay and Bluecliffs Beach, directly adjoining Fiordland National Park, in a region where roughly 73% of New Zealand's original indigenous forest cover has already been cleared.

Project development ran from 2008 to 2013, with Te Puni Kōkiri (the Ministry for Māori Development) co-funding the initial design alongside Ekos. The forest was certified to the Plan Vivo Standard and listed on the IHS Markit Environmental Registry, with independent verifier Dr Misheck Kapambwe confirming avoided-deforestation carbon benefits. Revenue from credit sales funds ongoing conservation management and monitoring, and — according to the landowners — habitat regeneration and tourism infrastructure linked to the nearby Hump Ridge Track.

To date the project has issued 16,589 tCO2e in verified carbon credits.

Rarakau remains one of the few indigenous-led forest-carbon deals outside the tropics; researchers studying it (Weaver, 2016, New Zealand Geographer) have flagged reliance on a single small voluntary-market buyer as a structural vulnerability for scaling the model to other Māori-owned forests.