Empower farmers

  • Enable agroforestry for smallholder farmers

  • Encourage sustainable farming

  • Equip communities with improved financial means

Get involved

Plant a better future with us

We're always on the lookout for local partners to set up new projects, empowering smallholder farmers everywhere. Are our values a match for yours? Then we'd love to connect.

Measurable

We enable smallholder farmers to transition to agroforestry in a way that takes the guesswork out of it, providing expert training and employing technological monitoring solutions, ensuring our mission is scalable, reliable, and verifiable.

Humane

80% of the revenue generated by the sale of carbon credits supports smallholder farmer livelihoods and development, and improves food security, biodiversity and soil quality, all while equipping communities with improved financial means. 

Impactful

We work towards climate balance for all of us, by encouraging sustainable farming and making agroforestry a viable option for smallholder farmers in developing countries, all while enabling corporates to offset their carbon emissions.

> View our brochure online

Our process in a nutshell

Coordinating with Acorn

To realize our mission of supporting millions of smallholder farmers, we are looking for partners to join forces. Collaborating with Acorn 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:  

  1. Get in touch with one of our account managers; they'll explain next steps and expectations 

  2. Gather information and fill out the required paperwork in our online portal; we’re committed to customer due diligence and will provide any support you need 

  3. Serve as lynchpin between Acorn and local smallholder farmers, both to direct revenue streams and to facilitate communication 

  4. Pay out farmers (at least 80% of the proceeds of CRU sales) and watch as your local community flourishes, from farm to family to neighborhood 

  5. Submit annual progress reports and assist us in keeping our data and models up to date through reporting and monitoring 

For a more thorough explanation of our methodology, refer to the six steps detailed in the photographs below, or download our brochure in English, Spanish or French.

View our brochure

1. Planting trees

An example of our methodology in practice can be found in Colombia. The first farmers joined with an agroforestry 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 agroforestry designs.

2. Collect farmer and plot data

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 Acorn portal.

3. Ground truth

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.

4. Models in place

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. 

5. CRUs calculated

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.  

6. Farmer payout

To close the loop, after the CRUs have been sold, 80% flows back to the farmer.

Remuneration

Most of the carbon credit sales revenue flows back to you and the farmers you represent. We take a fixed 10% to cover our costs. As project coordinator, you're entitled to up to 10% as well. The remaining 80% 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. 

Certification

In order to ensure we're a good fit for one another, we have set up a certification process in conjunction with Plan Vivo. This proprietary protocol keeps the certification process accessible, transparent and reduces the costs and lead times of certification significantly.

Find out more

Checklist

We work with organizations which have a trustworthy relationship with smallholder farmers. Organizations that believe in the benefits of agroforestry, are committed to venture into an innovative project in the voluntary carbon market, and have the capacity to partner with the Acorn program.

Therefore, we ask our partners to meet several conditions. For a more elaborate checklist, please consult the Acorn Framework.

Please ensure the following applies: 

  • Presence of legal right to sell Carbon Removal Units (no restricting governmental policy) 

  • The project includes new agroforestry and/or existing agroforestry with a maximum of 5 years since trees were planted 

  • 2.000+ ha potential project scale 

  • No deforestation took place in the project area in the last 5 years 

  • No carbon credits are being sold currently from the project, or CO2 (to be) sequestered is not yet monetized 

  • The area cultivated by each farmer is between 0.1 and 10 hectares 

  • There is local engagement and organizational capacity to undertake the project for a minimum of 20 years  

  • Every farmer has proof of formal or informal land tenure 

Types of project coordinators we would like to partner up with include NGOs, farmers’ co-ops, trading companies, and governments.

Get in touch

Interested in collaborating with Acorn? Our checklist can be found here. All set, or do you still have some questions? Contact us and our team will be in touch shortly. 

More information about collaborating

What conditions need to be met to be eligible to work with Acorn?

There are serveral conditions that need to be met. For a more elaborate checklist please consult the Acorn Framework

  • Your project includes new agroforestry or existing agroforestry with a maximum of 5 years since trees were planted    

  • Potential scale of the project is 2.000+ ha

  • Presence of legal right to sell Carbon Removal Units (no restricting governmental policy) 

  • No deforestation took place in the project area in the last 5 years    

  • No carbon credits are being sold or have been previously sold by farmers 

  • The size cultivated per farmer between 0.1 and 10 hectares  

  • There is local engagement and organizational capacity to undertake the project for a minimum of 20 years   

  • Farmers have proof of formal or informal land tenure  

Does Acorn provide financing?

Acorn does not provide direct financing to start agroforestry projects. However, Acorn has dedicated staff available to support with the development of the Business Case. Our staff actively searches for funding sources and connects them with our local partners to finance start-up costs of their projects. 

How much is the cost for project coordinators to participate in Acorn?

The main costs for the project coordinator purely consist of resources to onboard the organization and the project (e.g. providing the information), data collection, and monitoring. These costs strongly depend on what is already in place in terms of information and digitization.

Most costs are related however to the implementation of the agroforestry design. The Acorn team is happy to support with the development of a business case for both the project coordinator and the farmer to ensure it makes sense for all parties involved to be part of the collaboration.

Success stories so far

Project partners

giz
renature
One acre fund
Solidaridad
Farmstrong
kaderes

Trusted by leading corporations

microsoft
SC logo
Lavazza logo
Bain

Trusted by leading corporations

Falcon Coffee
DLL logo
Rabobank logo

Strategic partners

maastricht university
Plan vivo
third millenum alliance
WUR

Remote sensing partners

52impact
space4good
satelligence
agerpoint logo

Project partners

logo wetpa
farm Africa
trees 4 Kenya
carbon forest Zambia

Project partners

ecology logo
logo wetpa
comaco

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