ABC Mangrove

Inside the project

ABC Mangrove is a large-scale blue-carbon restoration program spanning two of Senegal's most important estuarine systems. Planting began in 2022 and has scaled each season, with the developer reporting cumulative planting passing 7,000 hectares by October 2025. The work uses natural mangrove propagules planted directly in the tidal zone, paired with capacity-building for coastal communities across more than two dozen municipalities.

The project is a methodology milestone: it is among the first projects to register under Verra's VM0033 in its digitized form, and the first to use the Verra-Hedera collaboration to automate creation and submission of its project design document. It is structured to deliver verified carbon removals, an estimated 2.2 million tonnes of CO2e over the crediting period, alongside CCB-certified community and biodiversity co-benefits.

Employment and training are targeted at women and youth in propagule collection and planting, and the project is mapped to nine UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Objectives

• Restore degraded mangrove across the Sine-Saloum and Casamance estuaries
• Deliver verified VCS+CCB carbon removals under VM0033
• Employ and train local women and youth in propagule planting
• Pilot a fully digitized project-design and MRV workflow
• Rebuild coastal protection and estuarine fisheries

Approach

• Restoration uses direct planting of natural mangrove propagules in the tidal zone, with socio-economic baseline studies and GIS/cartographic area validation carried out with Senegal's environmental directorates (DEEC, DEFCCS).
• The project design document was created and submitted through Verra's digitized VM0033 pipeline integrated with Hedera, and ongoing ecosystem monitoring follows VM0033 with growth time-series photography and geo-referenced planting polygons.