Toute l'actualitéReforest'Action's expertise in developing projects certified by international carbon standards is based on a dedicated team with complementary skills, specialized know-how and specific experience in each field.
A close synergy is at work between our engineering skills in the field, our experience in raising financing and providing tailor-made support for investors, and our financial and legal expertise in the service of robust governance. In this way, we collectively ensure that our nature-based carbon sequestration projects meet the most stringent integrity criteria, to support both the needs of investors and the requirements of carbon certification.
Meet 5 of the key profiles who make up this combined expertise, and who contribute to making Reforest'Action one of the most recognized and reliable players in the voluntary carbon market today.
Developing sequestration projects while maximizing fundamental benefits
Sabrina, Senior Carbon Project Manager
High-integrity carbon sequestration projects aim not only to create carbon sinks, but also to maximize environmental and socio-economic impacts on local communities, while identifying potential risks associated with each project and ensuring their mitigation.
As Senior Carbon Project Manager, Sabrina is responsible for developing carbon sequestration projects, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia. From the origination of potential projects to their design, coordination, monitoring, and mitigation of related risks, her engineering expertise is used to develop projects with a robust, sustainable design that is adapted to local issues.
One of the key aspects of her role is finding trusted partners in the field and establishing close, long-lasting working relationships between Reforest'Action and local project implementers, which is essential for developing high-integrity projects. Thanks to her experience in designing agroforestry and reforestation projects in tropical areas, Sabrina brings a more global vision to the teams in the field, which maximizes the fundamental social and environmental benefits generated by the projects, aligns their design with the various certification standards, fine-tunes project objectives to take into account investor expectations, and ensures financial balance through ongoing budget management.
Because project monitoring is essential, Sabrina also co-develops and oversees monitoring plans in collaboration with project implementers. This monitoring involves both operational monitoring, to ensure the effectiveness of operations in the field, and impact monitoring, to ensure that the objectives set for the selected fundamental benefits are achieved, particularly within the four pillars of impact defined by Reforest'Action: climate, biodiversity, soil and water systems, and the socio-economic sphere. The underlying objective of this initial monitoring is to enable local communities, in the medium term, to take ownership of the project and benefit from the establishment of sustainable governance, as well as a system for the equitable distribution of monetary and non-monetary benefits among the project's stakeholders (benefit sharing).
Sabrina is also responsible for the entire certification process for the projects she develops. Her ongoing monitoring of market conditions, major international agreements and the position of governments on the regulatory framework for the carbon market is complemented by her in-depth knowledge of standards, methodologies, eligibility criteria and additionality, which enables her to save time and target the right carbon certification framework in line with investors' needs from the project feasibility study stage.
Maintain in-depth knowledge of the field to optimize permanence
Hugo, Remote sensing & GIS Analyst
Maximizing project permanence is a crucial issue in large-scale ecosystem restoration. It is essential to analyze and understand the specific challenges and risks of the project area, as these factors directly influence the sustainability of the activities implemented, the achievement of the expected impacts, and the return on financial investments.
As a remote sensing and geomatics (GIS) analyst, Hugo carries out continuous analyses of the project area and the local context prior to the development of each project, as well as during their implementation and long-term monitoring phase.
He creates various maps that enable him to acquire and maintain in-depth knowledge of the landscape matrix and the challenges of the project area, using remote sensing data: biome maps, administrative maps, forest cover connectivity maps, land use maps, vegetation indices, biomass density indices, etc.
Hugo also conducts geospatial analyses to demonstrate the absence of risks (deforestation, fires, floods, etc.) in the project area, or to study potential risks in order to better mitigate them as part of a mitigation plan. All of this remote sensing and geomatics work is therefore crucial to contextualize the project, understand the specific challenges of its ecosystem type, and optimize the permanence of the restored ecosystems.
Hugo's expertise is also applied to the regular monitoring of the project's control plots, on which the reference scenario is based, in order to take into account their natural evolution over time. This benchmark performance protocol thus ensures a dynamic, rather than static, reference scenario, in line with the new VM 0047 certification methodology of the Verra standard. Regular updating of the baseline, compared to the project scenario, allows for greater rigor and accuracy in assessing the impacts generated by the project, and thus constitutes a valuable tool for project design and monitoring, increasing the effectiveness of our activities and providing even greater transparency to investors in terms of results.
Supporting investors in securing high-integrity carbon credits
Flora, Senior Carbon Sales Advisor
Nature-based solutions account for one-third of the mitigation efforts needed to combat climate change. Investing in nature-based sequestration projects, which offer multiple co-benefits, allows companies and other types of financial actors to diversify their investment strategies while strengthening the quality and credibility of their climate claims and addressing urgent environmental and social challenges.
As such, Flora, as Senior Carbon Sales Advisor, works with companies that are required, under the SBTi's Net Zero Standard, to reduce their emissions by at least 90% by 2050, as well as natural capital investment funds that bring together various investors who have committed funds to finance sequestration projects and purchase carbon credits (Carbon Dioxide Removal - CDR).
Flora supports investors throughout the process of selecting and financing a certified project – understanding the client's needs, formulating legal, technical and financial proposals tailored to those needs in a co-construction approach, managing the technical, legal and financial due diligence processes in conjunction with Reforest'Action's in-house teams of experts, and more. All of these challenges are addressed by its in-depth knowledge of the voluntary carbon market and high-integrity carbon sequestration criteria. Flora thus builds a relationship of trust with investors and works directly with them on various aspects of project design to enable them to align it with their ESG objectives.
It also guides companies in anticipating their climate strategy and securing the credits they will need in the medium term to generate multiple environmental and social impacts and meet the expectations of their stakeholders and consumers, both within and outside their value chains.
Implementing robust governance to ensure transparency, fairness, and traceability
Louis, Carbon Finance Manager
For climate action to meet market quality requirements, it is essential that all stakeholders align on principles of transparency, traceability, equitable value distribution, and inclusive decision-making.
Louis, Carbon Finance Manager at Reforest'Action, has responsibilities in several areas of financial expertise. From the project structuring phase, he supports the operational teams in developing a 30-year business plan, which he then monitors financially throughout the project's lifetime by maintaining a solid three-way relationship between Reforest'Action, the investor, and the project implementer in the field.
Louis also supports the commercial development of projects based on demand and market conditions. From calculating key performance indicators (KPIs) to due diligence processes during the pre-financing phase of a project, his expertise ensures the transparency and traceability of the data collected. At the same time, he works closely with the legal department to support the financial structuring of the project and the drafting of financing agreements.
Louis' financial expertise is also essential in designing and proposing innovative investment models, whether to enable investors to secure carbon credits ex-ante through forward purchase agreements (offtake), to directly finance a nature-based carbon sequestration project, or to spread risk through a diversified portfolio strategy.
Because high-integrity project governance requires clear and accessible reporting on cost allocation and benefit distribution, Louis also helps develop optimal transparency in project auditing and financial reporting to investors throughout the project lifecycle.
Valentin, Head of Legal & Risks Management
Working closely with Reforest'Action's operational, commercial, and financial departments, Valentin holds the key position of Head of Legal & Risk Management, thanks to the legal expertise he has acquired throughout his career in audit firms and financial institutions.
One of the main pillars of his role is to ensure compliance with the highest standards, as required by investors throughout their supply chain (combating illegal labor and child labor, money laundering and terrorist financing, fraud and corruption, etc.). He provides training to Reforest'Action teams and develops all compliance procedures for our stakeholders. Valentin also contributes to the ongoing mapping of risks identified for each project and to the development of mitigation plans.
On the legal front, Valentin handles all customized contract coordination with investors and Reforest'Action's various stakeholders, and oversees the creation of local legal structures, where necessary, to ensure the proper receipt of carbon credits and close monitoring of projects in the field. He thus ensures the legal security of the services required by our investors.
By choosing to work with Sabrina, Hugo, Flora, Louis, Valentin, and the entire Reforest'Action team, you are choosing to secure your investments, reduce risk, and strengthen your impact on the climate, biodiversity, and local communities through nature-based, high-integrity carbon sequestration projects. Reforest'Action offers a diversified portfolio of projects that can be tailored to multiple investment models to best fit your climate strategy. Contact one of our experts to discuss your needs.