We recently announced, Microsoft has agreed to purchase 350,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits from an award-winning agroforestry project in Kenya.

The Lake Victoria Watershed Agroforestry Project partners with 15,000 local smallholder farmers to develop Forest Gardens — multi-tiered agroforestry systems of trees, shrubs, and crops — on their land. It’s a way to replace unsustainable farming practices and restore nature, fight soil degradation, and halt biodiversity loss while sequestering carbon in the soil and trees.

The Kenyan Forest Garden project, which we designed and manage in close collaboration with our partner Trees for the Future, is an example of what Microsoft described in its most recent report on Carbon Removal as “carbon removal techniques which fit within smaller-scale circular economy principles. Chief among these might be agroforestry, which delivers both increased carbon sequestration and, in many contexts, enhanced agricultural output.”

The project is a perfect example of such dual local/global impact: farmers receive training and equipment to improve their land and maximize their yields, and they benefit from steady income and enhanced food security. At the same time, these practices greatly increase carbon sequestration. We’ve seen up close the difference this project is making for both the climate, and for local communities.

“Agroforestry is a particularly promising area for extensive carbon and environmental justice benefits, " Microsoft added in its Carbon Removal report. “By its nature, agroforestry often means engaging deeply with local communities and we look forward to more projects in this space.”

We couldn’t agree more. Purchases like the one Microsoft is making in the Lake Victoria project not only means more carbon dioxide removed from our air, it means significant benefits for local communities and ecosystems. This collaboration shows that when like-minded stakeholders come together to align on project quality and impact, big climate goals can become real climate action — and a sustainable future becomes possible.

That’s important because there is no path to meeting Paris Agreement targets that doesn’t involve carbon removals. Our job is to source, vet, design, finance, monitor and measure the projects that will allow companies to achieve their climate goals. And through this purchase, we’re proudly supporting Microsoft’s efforts to reach net zero the right way: reduce emissions as much as possible, and compensate for those that remain (for now) unavoidable by supporting high-impact carbon removal projects — including nature-based solutions where impact goes beyond climate and benefits local communities and ecosystems as well.

That’s the kind of approach we’re purpose-built to support — helping dedicated organizations like Microsoft achieve their goals, so we can all look forward to a sustainable future.