Projects delivered for supply-chain and project-development partners
Each engagement follows the same discipline - a clear brief, credible field delivery, and verifiable results. Below is what each partner asked for, what we did, and what we found.
Ecosystem Restoration Project
An ongoing insetting programme with PUR that is restoring cocoa landscapes in Central and Western North Regions in Ghana while diversifying and strengthening farmer livelihoods through agroforestry, improved cookstoves construction, beekeeping, and village savings, delivered as one integrated package.
Cocoa expansion has driven deforestation and left farmers exposed to climate stress. Companies sourcing from these landscapes need credible, deforestation-free supply chains - and farmers need resilient, diversified incomes to stay on the land.
We run community nurseries and distribute shade trees for on-farm agroforestry; train local artisans to build improved cookstoves; distribute beehives; and establish Village Savings & Loans groups - all farmer-owned and locally run across the Central and Western North regions.
A restored, better-monitored landscape and measurably stronger livelihoods - trees in the ground with survival tracked, cleaner cookstoves in homes, honey income for producers, and savings groups mobilising capital in rural communities.
MARS Biomass Inventory
A field-data collection exercise to build a verified biomass baseline across MARS supplier parcels - the ground truth that underpins credible carbon-removal estimates.
PUR, working with MARS, needed reliable, parcel-level field data - tree counts, species, stem diameter, height, land use and ownership - to estimate carbon removals across three supplier networks. Desk data alone could not support a defensible baseline.
Deployed five field teams of three across five regions, trained by PUR on its Biomass Inventory protocol, working with suppliers ECOM, General Cocoa and OFI. Each parcel was surveyed at tree level using hypsometers, diameter tapes and GPS. After week one we advised PUR to formalise a field-response decision pathway so officers handled eligibility issues consistently.
267 of 293 registered parcels visited (91% coverage) and 159 confirmed eligible, with a complete tree-level inventory delivered - plus a clear, categorised account of why parcels were ineligible (land-use change, access, farmer/supplier issues) to inform the carbon-removal estimate and future rounds.
Tree Survival Monitoring (TSMP)
Five years of shade-tree distribution, finally accounted for - a rigorous, GPS-based survival assessment that turned an unmeasured investment into decision-ready evidence.
Between 2019 and 2023 Cargill distributed shade trees to cocoa farmers, but survival was unknown - leaving the impact of the investment unaccounted for and future decisions (where, why and whether to keep supplying) without data.
Designed digital data-collection forms and deployed trained enumerators to visit farms across 50 communities, capturing farmer demographics, GPS farm polygons, species, tree circumference and height, planting year and survival status - then estimated carbon sequestration from the surviving trees.
1,575 farmers visited (91% of target); of 82,996 trees distributed on record, 23,466 were confirmed alive - a 43% survival rate on validated farms. We identified the main drivers of mortality and set out an end-to-end, data-driven approach to raise survival on future programmes.
Tree Registration - LEAN Project
Registering on-farm trees to secure tree tenure for farmers under the EU co-funded Landscape Environmental Agility Across the Nation (LEAN) project.
Under the LEAN project, Rainforest Alliance needed trees registered on the farms of 3,000 farmers in the Sui River Landscape - securing tree tenure, encouraging farmers to plant and care for trees, and building a centralised database (via the Forestry Commission's RMSC T-Regis application) toward eventual certification.
GaiaCare was trained by RMSC, then trained and deployed enumerators across 51 communities in two districts under close regional supervision, capturing farmer profiles and tree-level data in the T-Regis app and synchronising it to the RMSC web platform.
655 farms visited and 6,355 trees geo-referenced; 488 farms synchronised to the national database. The exercise proved registration is feasible, and delivered a candid account of the operational and technical (T-Regis) fixes needed - insight the client can act on for any similar assignment.
Where we're going
GaiaCare is positioning for a step change. Over the medium term we are developing:
Large-scale landscape restoration carbon projects in cocoa-growing regions, registered under the voluntary carbon market.
Mangrove restoration projects for blue carbon along Ghana's coastline.
Biochar pilots integrated into cocoa agroforestry to cut emissions and unlock farmer-level carbon revenue.
Plastic recycling for value addition and improved waste management in cities.