iRise Awarded Best Forestry Initiative at COP 28

In December 2023, at the 28th Conference of the Parties in Dubai, UAE, iRise Carbon was awarded the prestigious title of Best Forestry Initiative — an international recognition that placed the programme among the most respected climate and forestry projects in the world. The award, presented on a stage shared by heads of state, multilateral institutions, and the world's leading climate scientists, marked a defining moment in iRise Carbon's journey from an ambitious Malawi-based reforestation concept to a globally validated, market-ready climate solution.

COP28: The Most Consequential Forestry Moment in Years

COP28 in Dubai was, by any measure, one of the most significant climate conferences in the post-Paris era. Hosted under the presidency of Dr Sultan Al Jaber and attended by more than 85,000 delegates, the conference delivered a series of landmark outcomes — among them the historic commitment to transition away from fossil fuels, the operationalisation of the Loss and Damage Fund for vulnerable nations, and a renewed global commitment to nature-based climate solutions.

On forests specifically, COP28 saw the reaffirmation of the Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use — the 2021 pledge signed by over 140 nations to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030. With that deadline now firmly within sight, the pressure on project developers to demonstrate credible, measurable progress intensified considerably. The Best Forestry Initiative award was given in that context: not just as a commendation, but as a signal of what the global forestry and carbon community recognises as a model worth emulating.

What the Award Recognises

The Best Forestry Initiative designation was not awarded for scale alone. It recognised the full architecture of iRise's approach: the methodological rigour of the VM0047 verification framework, the genuine integration of local communities as economic participants rather than passive recipients, the exclusive use of indigenous tree species, and the programme's demonstrated ability to generate high-integrity carbon credits that buyers can trust.

The evaluation committee specifically highlighted iRise's community engagement model — the structure through which smallholder farmers in Malawi's Kasungu district are employed as paid custodians of restored forest land — as a breakthrough approach that addresses one of the most persistent weaknesses in conventional reforestation projects: the failure to maintain trees long after the initial planting event.

By building economic incentives for communities into the long-term survival of the forest, iRise had solved a problem that larger, better-funded programmes had struggled with for years. That insight — simple in principle, extraordinary in execution — sat at the heart of the award.

The Programme at COP28: Scale and Ambition

At the time of the award, iRise Carbon had already established itself as one of the most ambitious reforestation programmes on the African continent. With a target of over 2 million trees planted in Malawi's Kasungu district and a verified carbon removal goal exceeding 800,000 tonnes, the programme was operating at a scale that few nature-based solutions projects in sub-Saharan Africa had achieved.

The programme was also backed by a suite of institutional agreements that demonstrated real-world credibility: a direct carbon development agreement with Offset8 Capital Limited, and — uniquely for an African reforestation programme — a Direct Carbon Agreement signed with both the Ministry of Natural Resources and Climate Change and the Ministry of Finance of Malawi. These agreements provided the legal and governmental framework that enterprise carbon buyers require when procuring credits from developing-nation projects.

• Target of over 2 million indigenous trees planted across Kasungu district at time of award
• Verified under Verra's VM0047 Afforestation and Reforestation methodology
• Direct Carbon Agreements in place with the Government of Malawi
• Community custodian model delivering sustained income to hundreds of smallholder farmers
• Carbon removal target exceeding 800,000 tonnes of verified CO₂ equivalent
• Earlier recognised as a UN Lighthouse Project at COP27 — building a consecutive record of global validation

Forests at the Centre of the Climate Solution

The Best Forestry Initiative award came at a moment when the role of forests in meeting global climate targets was being reassessed with renewed urgency. The IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report had reinforced what scientists had long argued: that protecting and restoring forests is one of the most cost-effective and immediately deployable climate mitigation strategies available — capable of delivering up to 30% of the climate mitigation needed by 2030.

Yet the voluntary carbon market's relationship with forest carbon had also come under pressure. A wave of investigative journalism and academic scrutiny in 2023 had questioned the integrity of some large-scale forestry credits — particularly those from avoided deforestation programmes where additionality and permanence were difficult to verify. The result was a market-wide push towards higher-integrity alternatives: projects where removals were measurable, methodology was rigorous, and community accountability was built in.

iRise Carbon's afforestation and reforestation model — planting new trees on degraded former cropland, under a methodology that requires permanent monitoring and verification — sits on precisely the right side of that distinction. The COP28 award was, in that sense, a market signal as much as an institutional one.

A Milestone That Built Momentum

The recognition at COP28 catalysed a period of accelerated growth for iRise Carbon. Increased visibility among international carbon buyers and institutional partners, combined with the programme's already-strong track record, set the stage for subsequent milestones: the clean cookstoves partnership with Mukuru, the expansion to 3 million trees in Kasungu, and ultimately the selection for CEEZER's Carbon Coalition Accelerator — one of just six projects chosen globally from more than 50 applicants across 27 countries.

Each of those milestones has roots in the credibility built at COP28. When buyers and partners evaluate iRise Carbon today, the Best Forestry Initiative award is part of the evidence base — a third-party validation from one of the world's most consequential climate forums that the programme is, in the most meaningful sense of the word, the real thing.

“This recognition at COP28 reflects what happens when you refuse to compromise on either community impact or carbon integrity. The two don't have to be in tension — and iRise proves it.”

— iRise Carbon Team