iRise to Plant Additional 1 Million Trees in Kasungu

In January 2026, iRise Carbon will break ground on one of the most ambitious single-district reforestation expansions in Malawi's history — the planting of an additional 1 million indigenous trees across the Kasungu district. Combined with the 2 million trees already established under iRise's Climate and Community Transformation Program, this expansion brings the total to more than 3 million trees in the ground, cementing Kasungu as the centrepiece of one of Africa's most impactful community-led carbon projects.

Why Kasungu?

Kasungu district sits in the heart of central Malawi — a landscape of rolling hills, scattered villages, and former agricultural land that has borne the brunt of decades of deforestation. The pressures are well-documented: an over-reliance on charcoal as an energy source, land clearing for subsistence farming, and a lack of viable economic alternatives have stripped vast tracts of what was once rich woodland.

The consequences go far beyond the loss of trees. Soil erosion has degraded farmland productivity, seasonal rivers have become unreliable, and communities that once lived within functioning forest ecosystems now face an increasingly hostile agricultural environment. Restoring Kasungu's forests is not simply a carbon story — it is a story about rebuilding the ecological foundation that entire communities depend on.

iRise Carbon identified Kasungu early in the programme development process as a region where restoration is both urgently needed and ecologically viable. The soils retain the capacity to support native woodland, and critically, the local communities are willing and active partners in making that restoration happen.

The Case for Indigenous Species

Every tree planted in the iRise programme is indigenous — species that evolved in Malawi's ecosystems over millennia and are uniquely adapted to its soils, rainfall patterns, and biodiversity. This is a deliberate and non-negotiable part of iRise's approach, and it matters enormously for the long-term success of the project.

Exotic monoculture plantations — often used in commercial forestry carbon projects — may produce trees quickly, but they do little for biodiversity recovery, can destabilise local water tables, and rarely provide the range of ecosystem services that communities rely on. By contrast, indigenous woodland restoration supports the return of native wildlife, improves soil health, stabilises watercourses, and provides communities with a wider range of forest products — from fruit and fodder to firewood and medicinal plants.

Under Verra's VM0047 methodology, which iRise Carbon uses for all its carbon credit generation, the use of appropriate native species is central to ensuring that sequestration claims are both scientifically credible and durable over the decades-long monitoring periods required for high-integrity credit issuance.

Community as the Engine of Restoration

What sets iRise Carbon apart from many large-scale reforestation programmes is the model through which trees are planted and maintained. Rather than deploying contracted planting crews, iRise works directly with hundreds of local smallholder farmers — designating them as paid custodians of the trees planted on and around their land.

Each participating farmer receives direct payments for the ongoing stewardship of their trees: planting, watering during dry seasons, protecting against grazing, and monitoring survival rates. This is not a one-off payment — it is a sustained income stream that continues as long as the trees are cared for. The economic incentive is deliberately aligned with the ecological outcome: the better the trees survive and grow, the more carbon is sequestered, and the more value is generated — a portion of which flows back to the communities.

This model has been field-tested across iRise's existing planting areas, and the results are compelling. Survival rates for custodian-tended trees significantly outperform those in comparable programmes where community ownership is absent. The reason is simple: when people have a direct stake in seeing a tree survive, they protect it.

• Hundreds of smallholder farmers engaged as paid tree custodians across Kasungu
• Direct payments issued for planting, tending, and long-term protection of trees
• Community income tied directly to tree survival and forest health
• 100% indigenous species selected and sourced for ecological compatibility
• Reforestation validated under Verra's rigorous VM0047 A/R methodology

Towards 800,000 Tonnes of Verified Carbon Removals

The expansion to 3 million trees is a major milestone on iRise Carbon's path towards its headline target: more than 800,000 tonnes of verified carbon removals, generated under Verra's VM0047 Afforestation and Reforestation methodology. These removals will be issued as high-integrity carbon credits available to international corporate buyers seeking to meet their net-zero commitments with the highest-quality nature-based solutions on the market.

Carbon sequestration in a reforestation project is a long-term process — trees absorb carbon at increasing rates as they mature, meaning the full impact of today's planting will be realised over decades. The 1 million new trees planted in January 2026 are therefore not just a near-term contribution; they are an investment in a long-term carbon asset that will continue delivering climate value — and community income — for generations.

Independent monitoring and verification of carbon stocks will be conducted by accredited third-party auditors throughout the project's lifetime, ensuring that every credit issued is backed by real, measurable, and permanent forest growth in Kasungu.

A Model Worth Replicating

Beyond the numbers, iRise's expansion in Kasungu represents a proof of concept for a new way of doing carbon forestry in Africa. It demonstrates that it is possible to deliver commercially credible, investor-grade carbon credits without compromising community benefit — and in fact, that the two are mutually reinforcing.

As pressure mounts on the voluntary carbon market to move beyond low-quality offsets towards genuinely transformative projects, iRise's Kasungu programme offers a template: deep community integration, uncompromising scientific rigour, indigenous species restoration, and long-term accountability built into the economic structure of the programme itself.

The 1 million trees to be planted in January 2026 are the next chapter of that story.