Restauro de Mangais REDD+ no Rio Gâmbia — Acordo de Compra de Unidades de Carbono Verificadas com a Ørsted

Since 2022, The Gambia's Department of Parks and Wildlife Management (DPWM) has partnered with three local NGOs — Sahel Wetlands Concern, the Kombo Foni Forestry Association (KOMFORRA) and the West African Bird Study Association (WABSA) — to restore mangrove forests along the Gambia River under a REDD+ mechanism designed to the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS).

The project targets restoring mangrove forest across three administrative regions, working toward a long-term target of over 100,000 hectares, financed through carbon-credit revenue via a Verified Carbon Unit Purchase Agreement (VCUPA) with Danish energy company Orsted.

A pilot phase in 2022 replanted around 240 hectares; by 2023 the project had scaled up to restore more than 5,000 hectares with over 50 riverside communities. Governance runs through a National Steering Committee alongside community-level Project Committees and emerging District Committees.

By late 2023, participating communities such as Kiang Keneba, Kiang Jolli and Kiang Karantaba had already received payments ranging from roughly 300,000 to 2 million Gambian dalasis, with the bulk of carbon-credit revenue scheduled to begin flowing in 2027. The VCS carbon accounting is estimated at about 1,392 emission reductions per year, though this has not yet been independently verified or credited.

The main evidence gap is ecological: while mangrove restoration is well-established as a coastal-protection and carbon-storage practice, no independent, site-specific monitoring of biodiversity or water-quality outcomes has yet been published.