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Good practice Imported

TRI–CECAB Agroforestry Carbon Programme — São Tomé's First Payment for Ecosystem Services Scheme

Sao Tome and Principe · São Tomé · See the Sao Tome and Principe profile · See the São Tomé profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 69% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

GEF/FAO-backed landscape restoration with the CECAB cocoa cooperative added, in 2023, São Tomé and Príncipe's first Payment for Ecosystem Services layer: Rabobank's Acorn platform verifies and sells carbon credits from smallholder agroforestry, sharing revenue with farmers.

9683 hectares
Land brought under restoration (by 2023)
23226 hectares
Land under improved management (by 2023)
91401 seedlings (61 species)
Tree seedlings produced (2023)
1500 farmers (approx.)
Farmers issued planting kits
12000 hectares (target, not yet reached)
Restoration target
70 % (programme-wide Acorn figure, not STP-specific)
Share of Acorn carbon-credit revenue intended for smallholders
TRI–CECAB Agroforestry Carbon Programme — São Tomé's First Payment for Ecosystem Services Scheme

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
The Restoration Initiative (TRI) / CECAB, with FAO, GEF, IUCN and Acorn (Rabobank)
Period
2018–ongoing (Acorn carbon-credit layer since 2023)
Keywords
agroforestry, carbon markets, cocoa, forest restoration

Context

Since 2018, the GEF-funded, FAO/IUCN-supported 'Restoration Initiative' (TRI) has worked with São Tomé and Príncipe's Directorate of Forests and Biodiversity and CECAB, the archipelago's largest cocoa cooperative, to restore degraded shade-grown cocoa and forest land across both islands.

Objectives

Restore degraded agroforestry and forest land toward a 12,000 ha target, and — from 2023 — layer on the country's first formal Payment for Ecosystem Services mechanism by monetising the carbon sequestered on restored smallholder plots.

Activities

By 2023, IUCN reported 9,683 ha brought under restoration and 23,226 ha under improved management, with 91,401 tree seedlings of 61 species produced that year alone and roughly 1,500 farmers issued planting kits; in early 2023 TRI partnered with Acorn, Rabobank's agroforestry carbon programme, to measure, certify and sell verified carbon removal units from restored smallholder plots to corporate buyers.

Results

Reporting on the wider Acorn programme indicates roughly 70% of credit revenue is intended to flow back to smallholders, though São Tomé-specific payment totals have not been independently published; restoration progress (9,683 ha) remains below the 12,000 ha target.

Conclusions

Because the carbon-payment layer is only a few years old and STP-specific verification and payment data are not yet public, the evidence here rests mainly on restoration-hectare and seedling counts rather than audited carbon or income figures — a gap worth watching as Acorn's verification cycles mature.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — No total programme budget figure is stated in the source; scale (multi-island GEF/FAO/IUCN restoration programme plus a Rabobank carbon-credit partnership) suggests a medium cost band relative to other national PES schemes in this batch.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Restoration work has run since 2018 (multi-year), with the PES/carbon-payment layer added in 2023 and still maturing — a medium timeline band.
Staffing & skills
The Restoration Initiative (TRI) — GEF-funded, FAO/IUCN-supported, São Tomé and Príncipe's Directorate of Forests and Biodiversity, CECAB (largest cocoa cooperative in the archipelago), Acorn (Rabobank) — carbon measurement, certification and sales

Conditions for success

  • Existing cocoa-cooperative structure (CECAB) providing an organised smallholder base for aggregated agroforestry restoration
  • Multilateral technical and funding backing (GEF, FAO, IUCN) predating and supporting the PES layer
  • A specialised carbon-monetisation partner (Acorn/Rabobank) handling verification and corporate buyer sales

Common failure modes

  • São Tomé-specific carbon-credit verification and payment totals are not yet independently published, limiting evaluation of the PES layer itself
  • Restoration progress (9,683 ha) remains below the programme's 12,000 ha target

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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