To realize our mission of supporting millions of smallholder farmers, we are looking for partners to join forces. Collaborating with GEP as a project coordinator is as straightforward as we can make it. We're here to help you and the farmers in the community you serve, after all. Here's how it works:
Most of the carbon credit sales revenue flows back to you and the farmers you represent. We take a fixed 20% to cover our costs. As project coordinator, you're entitled to up to 5-10% as well. The remaining 70-75 % is paid out to farmers, at least once a year. How much a CRU sells for depends on supply and demand, but we'll always charge a minimum of €20, to minimize financial risk for the farmers.
In order to ensure we're a good fit for one another, we have set up a certification process in conjunction with VERIFIED CARBON STANDARD
GOLD STANDARD. This proprietary protocol keeps the certification process accessible, transparent and reduces the costs and lead times of certification significantly.
We work with organizations which have a trustworthy relationship with smallholder farmers. Organizations that believe in the benefits of Agro forestry, are committed to venture into an innovative project in the voluntary carbon market, and have the capacity to partner with the GEP program. Therefore, we ask our partners to meet several conditions.
Please ensure the following applies:
Types of project coordinators we would like to partner up include NGOs, farmers’ co-ops, trading companies, and governments.
An example of our methodology in practice can be found in Colombia. The first farmers joined with an agro forestry combination of Robusta coffee intercropped with shade, banana, avocado, and mango trees. Farmers plant tree species that are native or naturalized, and draw on local and expert knowledge for Agro forestry designs.
Our local project coordinator kicks things off: collecting details like field coordinates, land ownership and farmer consent forms from the participating smallholders and uploading them to the GEP portal.
Ground truth data is collected to have accurate models for remote measurement at scale. With the help of data collectors, we then define sample plots, measure trees per subplot, and measure average biomass. We use LiDAR and satellite data to complement this information.
We train our models on basis of the sample lot based on ground truth and LiDAR. We check if deforestation has taken place in the previous five years and measure the delta of biomass growth over the last year.
Based on our certified methodology and framework, we correct the biomass delta of every plot for adjustment factors like leakage and calculate the tonnes of CO2 that the plot has sequestered, hence the number of CRUs can be created.
To close the loop, after the CRUs have been sold, 75% flows back to the farmer.