Our Impact

To us, impact means more than just statistical numbers.

The trees that are planted with our Acorn program aren’t just trees that store carbon, they’re trees that have also been chosen by farmers for shade, for food and other benefits. On a field trip, one Tanzanian farmer told our Acorn colleague, “We picked these trees for our grandchildren because they love these fruits.”

CRU transactions aren’t just a way for our buyers to offset their carbon emissions, it’s income that contributes to smallholder livelihoods in a tangible way. Another Colombian farmer told our local partner he was finally able to take his wife on a day out in town to buy vegetables because of the additional carbon income he received.

Our agroforestry-carbon projects are more than a nature-based climate solution – they’re supporting social progress and financial independence.

To us, impact means activated and empowered farming communities, who have improved social and ecological conditions. To some farmers, that may look like having food for their family in months they would normally go hungry. To other farmers, that may look like feeling enabled to speak up about investments their farm needs. And to other farmers, that may be as simple as finally being able to take their family for a day out in town.

This is our mission here at Acorn.

(Link) See our Farmer Stories page to hear from more farmers who share their perspective about the Acorn program.

How we address challenges

This mission is not without its challenges. We recognize the high stakes involved when working with vulnerable populations, particularly when it involves such a new and evolving market. We are committed to holding ourselves and our projects to higher standards, while also moving towards scalability.

Together with our local partners, we our working towards improving our approach, our projects and our technology. Here is a shortlist of challenges that we are actively working to resolve:

Uncertainty

(Pending Mila interview) Where we want our ‘uncertainty’ to be? Where is it now? How will we get there? Tie in ‘high quality CRUs

Farmer Engagement

Our projects span across Africa, Asia and Latin America, while working with farmers of all different educational backgrounds and resources. To ensure free and informed consent, it’s essential for us that all participating farmers understand the Acorn program to understand what they are signing up for. However, many farmers are low literate or illiterate, and may not have access to high speed internet or smartphone technologies. In addition to this, farmers are often spread out over long and difficult-to-reach distances. To address this:

• We work with our local partners’ farmer communication network structures. Through these structures, as well as our own data collection structure, we provide farmers with visual information about the Acorn program, in the form of infographics and a short voiceover animation which have been adapted to regional languages and contexts.

• Program contracts will also have supporting visuals to help low literate farmers understand the context of the agreement better. This is currently in development.

• All projects are required to implement at least one Acorn Project Council, in which farmer needs can be brought forward to the Council by their elected representatives. We are working together with our local partners to identify gaps to help them implement stronger project councils that best represent the needs of their participating farmers.

• We are also working together with local partners to communicate with farmers about important Acorn updates through SMS messaging, or IVR / USSD communication.