Carbon credits may seem like an abstract solution to greenhouse gas emissions. Buy an intangible certificate; trust that CO2 is being avoided or removed somewhere. Life Terra, a non-profit organisation that runs reforestation initiatives across Europe, is showing European corporate buyers that the process of removing carbon is not intangible at all. It is something they can touch, plant with their own hands, and care for in their own countries.
“Come out on a two-hour drive and see for yourself,” says Sven Kallen, founder and secretary of Life Terra. Previously co-funded by the EU’s Life Programme, Life Terra seeks to plant 500 million trees to restore European ecosystems by involving local citizens, municipalities, schools and companies in its tree-planting events. To finance its operations, the organisation that has planted trees in more than 30 countries raises funds from development grants and corporate sponsors. It produces high-quality carbon removal credits, too.
When trees grow, they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in biomass. For every tonne of CO₂ removed and stored, one carbon removal credit is issued, allowing the buyer to claim that verified carbon removal. Carbon removals from Life Terra's projects are issued under the ASES On-Chain Protocol from Nat5, a methodology designed to meet quality standards comparable to those of Gold Standard, one of the world's leading carbon credit certification programmes.
Additionally, the procedure to verify a project and obtain the carbon removal credits includes an initial audit of the planting project, yearly monitoring field visits, and a post-project audit from a third party to ensure the veracity of the data. Verifiers do regular ground checks, biomass growth assessments, and satellite imagery reviews, too.
“Trust in the carbon market has been a challenge,” Sven admits. A couple of years ago, the carbon market took a hit when a series of reports questioned the legitimacy of credits issued from a handful of emissions avoidance projects backed by well-known standards. Suddenly, offsetting seemed remote and imprecise. “We want to create an understanding that carbon offsetting is not just one thing or some scheme happening somewhere remote. It’s visible and close to home.”
Life Terra’s carbon removals are estimated conservatively by projecting the growth of living biomass of an afforested or reforested area over a 40-year period. The calculations use data adapted to biogeographic region, type of soil, climate, and other variables.
Crucially, their reforestation projects are happening across Europe, making it possible for companies that purchase removals for their own emissions to take part in reforesting themselves. “Planting trees helps people get engaged,” Sven adds. “They can even talk to the landowners and learn about their experience. We need everyone to see that this is real.”
“If more people back us with carbon credits, I will scale up and reforest more land.” António Carriço partnered with Life Terra to restore 65 hectares he purchased in Odemira, in the south of Portugal. The plot had been abandoned. It was covered with cistus, flowering plants that colonise impoverished soils. Today, that land has been transformed into green hillsides, while António himself received in 2026 a €50 000 check for the sale of carbon removals.
Life Terra splits the revenue from carbon removals evenly with landowners, providing vital funding for reforestation efforts and the long-term care trees require to withstand drought, frost, fire, predation, and other threats. This ongoing stewardship is essential to permanence, the carbon market principle that carbon removed from the atmosphere should remain stored over the long term rather than being released back into the atmosphere. Without a reliable revenue flow coming from companies that buy carbon removals, maintaining that commitment would be difficult—if not impossible—for many landowners.
“Farmers make constant financial decisions in a very uncertain environment. It’s the weather, the soil, the policies, the money. Removing layers of uncertainty really helps keep and scale these projects and for more farmers to join,” António says.
António himself has encouraged other landowners to partner with Life Terra. “Most people know what carbon credits are, even if not in depth,” he continues. “But what is hard to see is that there is money to be made from them. Once you explain the financial benefit, it’s an easy story to sell.”
Tree planting at Finca Alía, in Extremadura, Spain.
The point of carbon credits is indeed to bridge the climate finance gap—to bring cash to removal projects on the ground. But like any market, it depends on demand. The European Union is working on a new regulatory framework for carbon removals and carbon farming (CRCF), which intends to build confidence in the market and mobilise private capital. Nat5, the certification programme that backs Life Terra’s projects, is seeking registration under the CRCF scheme.
António’s initiative was born at the intersection of a wish to restore forests close to home and a financial opportunity. “There is plenty of abandoned land in the south of Portugal that can be reforested,” António adds. “I don’t want to plant timber. I want an agroforest that is healthy and diverse, but it needs to be financially sustainable, too.”
The relationship between reforestation and carbon emissions is relatively easy to understand. We see growing trees; we intuitively associate them with cleaner air. What may not be immediately obvious are the interactions between those trees, everything that lives among them, and how these, eventually, can remake a forest.
“When we start a project, we do an inventory to understand the history of the land and the motivation of the landowner: which species they want to plant and what type of intervention should we do based on topography, temperature, drought resilience,” Sven Kallen says. “It is very important that our views match because landowners make a 40-year commitment to take care of the trees.”
"Maybe in the past reforestation was just about planting trees. That is simply no longer the case. We are increasing the overall value of the restored landscape.”
Life Terra avoids monocultures. Along with farmers, it chooses at least six different species—or as many as 50— ranging from woody trees to berry bushes. The plants are native to the land, mimicking the ecosystem before deforestation, and are carefully selected to make each other stronger against harsh conditions.
“The land is very dry here and we have no real irrigation systems,” António Carriço says about his land in Odemira. “But since we have a good species selection, we have a good survival rate. The landscape is now unrecognisable from when we started, three years ago.”
It’s not only carbon-removing trees that benefit from diversity. When different species interact, the land becomes richer, hosting more bacteria that fix nutrients to the soil. Water retention improves, creating buffers against drought and flooding, while multi-tiered ecosystems allow animal species to return to a habitat that slowly transforms into a forest.
Along with project certifiers Nat5, Life Terra conducts regular verification field visits to monitor improvements in biodiversity, a core goal of carbon removal projects. For example, at Finca Alía, one of Life Terra’s projects in Extremadura, Spain, that started in 2023, four species of bats have made a remarkable comeback to a previously cleared area.
“Whenever we can, we add additional elements to the restorations sites, like an artificial pond in low-lying areas that attract salamanders back, or nesting boxes for both bats and birds,” Sven continues. “All these additional elements support biodiversity and accelerate recovery, because it all goes hand in hand. Maybe in the past reforestation was just about planting trees. That is simply no longer the case. We are increasing the overall value of the restored landscape.”
It is not interspecies interactions that matter. Bringing the human community together is also crucial to the success of reforestation and carbon removal initiatives.
Life Terra works to ensure broad social acceptance of new restoration initiatives. “At the start of a new project we invite neighbours and other interested parties to learn about the objectives and timeline,” Sven continues. “We invite local schools and volunteers to join in part of the restoration work. Social participation is one of Life Terra’s success pillars and we do see that afterwards more landowners come to us with interest to join our project”.
So far, Life Terra has four active carbon removal projects, with many more landowners ready to join. But financial support is needed. If more European companies invest part of their climate removal budgets closer to home—perhaps bring their teams along to plant the trees—they could become the catalysts that keep the green momentum growing.
Ecohz provides high-quality carbon removal credits, including credits from Life Terra's projects across Europe. Our team will be happy to advise you on the credits that best align with your company's climate goals and connect you with the removal projects closest to your operations.
We believe in Life Terra's mission. Through the Caely Charity Foundation, we have provided financial support to its reforestation projects. Our employees have also joined Life Terra on the ground, planting trees near our headquarters in the Netherlands and helping bring carbon removals closer to home.