With more than 33 percent of the land worldwide being degraded, restoring damaged ecosystems is essential for achieving environmental sustainability and safeguarding biodiversity. However, restoration work is costly and needs financing. Restoration projects can sequester (capture) carbon credits and sell them in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), and thereby use carbon sequestration as a funding source. The VCM is commonly used by companies, non-profit organizations, and governments to buy and sell carbon credits.

However, concerns exist regarding this financing source. Some claim carbon credits have been used by wealthy corporations and countries to evade their environmental responsibilities, and they have not always benefited local communities. Despite the criticisms, carbon markets’ benefits can outweigh their drawbacks if properly regulated, and there are signs they will play a significant role in the fight against climate change. Co-creation approaches can be a pathway to designing socially just ecosystem restoration projects. Co-creation is a collaborative process that actively includes diverse stakeholders, especially local communities, in the design, implementation, and monitoring of ecosystem restoration initiatives.

The 2025 study, by Whitman et al., shows that a restoration project in eastern Honduras, funded by the voluntary carbon market (VCM), is supporting just ecosystem restoration and equitable rural development by adhering to six principles that use co-creation as a guiding framework.

The six guiding principles are:

1. Treat carbon sequestration not as the end goal, but as a vehicle for equitable development.
2. Adapt to the local context, which increases the likelihood of the intervention being sustainable.
3. Support negotiated decision making, ensuring a sense of community ownership and responsibility for the project.
4. Design social infrastructures that foster learning and innovation by establishing spaces for communication between diverse stakeholders.
5. Diversify income streams, opening opportunities for funding in addition to the VCM.
6. Pursue transparency to cultivate trust and shared sense-making.

While the project in Honduras is still in its early stages, the results are promising. In order to ensure that ecosystem restoration supports equitable development, time and flexibility are required, which isn’t always aligned with the economic priorities of other funding sources. By following the six principles rooted in co-creation, ecosystem restoration projects that use the VCM as a funding source can provide both things, allowing ecosystem restoration initiatives to contribute to increased equity, inclusion, and improved livelihoods.

Read the full scientific article here.

This text was written by Léon Videla Jeppsson, Intern within Focus area 5 – Transformation.

Popular science summary of Whitman, M., Powell, N., Bergström, M., & Rodriguez, M. (2025). Co-creating the design of equitable ecosystem restoration using the voluntary carbon market – six principles. Nature-Based Solutions, 7, 100202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbsj.2024.100202