Additionality ReDefined: From Paper Commitments to Real Impact

Additionality has long been one of the most debated and misunderstood concepts in nature based carbon markets. In traditional REDD+ frameworks, additionality has often focused narrowly on avoided deforestation or reforestation outcomes, assessed through counterfactual modelling rather than real-world intervention. In practice, this has led to a persistent structural weakness: only a limited proportion of carbon revenues have found their way back to the communities and landscapes responsible for protecting the forest in the first place.

Across many REDD+ projects globally, reforestation has under-delivered, funding leakage has been significant, and local economic alternatives have remained underdeveloped. Where communities continue to lack access to reliable energy, employment, and infrastructure, pressure on forests inevitably returns often through informal or artisanal coal and mineral extraction.

Our approach in Shabunda is designed to change this dynamic fundamentally.

Rather than treating additionality as an abstract accounting concept, we define it as direct, traceable reinvestment into community resilience and long-term economic alternatives that actively reduce the drivers of deforestation.

A meaningful share of additionality funding generated from the Shabunda carbon credits is ring-fenced for local community deployment, with a primary focus on green energy and livelihood transition projects. These initiatives are designed to replace environmentally destructive activities particularly coal extraction and charcoal dependence where they are economically or socially prevalent.

This approach ensures that carbon finance does not simply reward avoided outcomes, but actively changes future behaviour by addressing root causes.

Food insecurity remains one of the most pressing and interconnected challenges facing communities in Shabunda and across eastern Congo. Where households lack reliable income, energy, and infrastructure, food systems become fragile leading to malnutrition, unstable livelihoods, and increased pressure on both children and natural resources.

We see food security not as a standalone humanitarian issue, but as a foundational pillar of long-term social and environmental stability.

Our food security strategy in Shabunda is tightly integrated with our broader additionality and energy access model. Rather than short-term food aid, we focus on enabling communities to produce, store, and access food sustainably.

Food security interventions are aligned with internationally recognised development frameworks and informed by collaboration with UN-aligned partners, including those focused on agriculture, nutrition, and resilience such as the Food and Agriculture Organization.

This alignment ensures that local interventions:

• Support sustainable food systems rather than dependency

• Strengthen resilience to climate variability

• Integrate with national and regional development priorities

An Advisory Board to Deliver, Monitor, and Protect Impact

To ensure that impact commitments translate into real-world outcomes, Shabunda is supported by a dedicated Advisory Board established to guide, oversee, and continuously monitor the deployment of capital and the delivery of social, environmental, and economic outcomes.

The Advisory Board is designed to provide independent oversight, technical insight, and accountability across all stages of implementation.

Role of the Advisory Board

Buyer Representation and Alignment

Crucially, the Advisory Board includes representatives from buyers, ensuring direct alignment between capital providers, project delivery, and impact outcomes.

Buyer representation helps to:

• Strengthen transparency and trust

• Align expectations on impact delivery and reporting

• Ensure that funded outcomes meet the standards required by institutional, corporate, and regulatory stakeholders

• Create a direct feedback loop between buyers and on-the-ground implementation

This approach moves beyond traditional “arm’s-length” carbon transactions and establishes a shared responsibility model for impact.

A Framework Built for Long-Term Integrity

By embedding governance, buyer participation, and independent oversight into the project structure, Shabunda sets a higher bar for integrity and accountability in nature-based projects.