Have any countries successfully organized and implemented a collective carbon project model involving multiple SMEs?

Several countries have successfully implemented collective carbon project models, where multiple small businesses or farm households participate under a centrally coordinated program. The goal is to reduce transaction costs, simplify the verification process, and achieve sufficient scale to qualify for carbon credit generation.

A typical example is the Family Forest Carbon Program in the United States, initiated by the American Forest Foundation, which aggregates thousands of small-scale forest owners under a single Improved Forest Management (IFM) project. The program utilizes a simple and standardized MRV model to reduce verification costs and generate carbon credits through the IFM methodology. These credits are traded on the voluntary market, creating a financial stream for small-scale landowners.153

In Africa, cookstove projects certified by organizations like Gold Standard or Verra are also often implemented under a collective model, where thousands of households in Kenya, Rwanda, or Ghana adopt new technologies that reduce emissions, which are measured under a centralized system. Companies such as Burn Manufacturing or Impact Carbon act as coordinators.154

In Vietnam, although there are no collective carbon projects for industrial SMEs yet, lessons learned from the BioCarbon Fund's agricultural model in India – where hundreds of farmers collectively changed tillage methods – show similar potential for application in sectors such as livestock farming, agricultural processing, or eco-tourism services.

The collective model helps SMEs overcome initial cost barriers and technical capacity limitations. However, success depends on coordination capacity, standardized data, and a clear benefit-sharing mechanism among the parties. The key lesson is the need for a strong, transparent, and trusted intermediary organization to act as the focal point for coordination and verification.

References

153. The Nature Conservancy. (2025). Family Forest Carbon Program. The Nature Conservancy. https://www.nature.org/en-us/what-we-do/our-priorities/tackle-climate-change/climate-change-stories/family-forest-carbon-program/#:~:text=The%20program%20is%20unique%20in,low%20for%20family%20forest%20owners
154. Stevens, L., et al. (2020). Market mapping for improved cookstoves: Barriers and opportunities in East Africa. Development in Practice, 30(1), 37–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2019.1658717