By Bernard Giraud, Livelihoods President and Co-Founder and Eric Soubeiran, Livelihoods CEO
The climate crisis is not just about rising temperatures or extreme weather: it is about people. Smallholder farmers, who cultivate less than 2 hectares, produce a third of the world’s food and protect some of the world’s most important ecosystems, are on the frontlines. Yet, they are still too often left out of the solutions designed to save the planet. The real climate challenge is not just reducing emissions, it is ensuring that those who steward the land, those who restore forests, regenerate soils, and revive biodiversity, have the resources and power to do so.
At COP30 in Belém, the world saw the Voluntary Carbon Market for what it truly is: a vital tool to channel private investment where it is needed most, but also a system at risk of failing the very people it should serve. Rules built to ensure integrity are becoming so rigid that they risk excluding smallholders, Indigenous communities, and local organizations. The result? A market that risks prioritizing paperwork over people, and bureaucracy over real impact.
Drawing on 15 years of field experience with our investors, community partners, and teams working across continents, we know that the Voluntary Carbon Market’s credibility depends on integrity that is pragmatic rather than punitive, and inclusion that is impactful rather than symbolic. COP30 did not deliver a grand transformation, but it made one thing clear: the market’s future hinges on whether it can adapt to serve those who need it most.
Climate and Livelihoods: Two sides of the same coin
Climate change is not just an environmental issue: it is a livelihoods crisis. When droughts destroy crops, when floods wash away homes, when forests disappear, it is rural communities that feel the impacts first and most severely. But these same communities hold part of the key to climate solutions. Restoring degraded lands, protecting forests, and building resilience cannot be done without them. The question is: will we let them?
The Voluntary Carbon Market was intended to provide support. By putting a price on carbon, it could channel billions into projects that restore nature and improve lives. Yet the market now stands at a crossroads. Rules designed in boardrooms, far from the fields and forests where the real work happens, are making it harder for communities to access the finance they need. If we do not act now, the Voluntary Carbon Market could become just another tool that benefits the powerful, while leaving the most vulnerable behind.
The Voluntary Carbon Market: Not a miracle, but a critical lifeline
The Voluntary Carbon Market will not solve the climate crisis alone. But it is one of the few mechanisms we have to direct private money toward the people and places that need it most, especially needed in the context of shrinking public funding.
Since our first project in 2009, we have seen what works. Projects led by smallholders and local communities, like those restoring mangroves in Senegal, reviving agroforestry in India and protecting forests in Guatemala, are proving that climate action can go hand in hand with more resilient landscapes and the livelihoods they support. But these projects are under pressure. Rules on permanence, monitoring, and land rights are becoming increasingly stringent, often out of step with on-the-ground realities, making it harder for these projects and the people behind them to access carbon finance. Without change, we risk losing the very initiatives that deliver the greatest benefits for both communities and the planet.
COP30 highlighted this tension. Some negotiators pushed to dilute rules for flexibility, while others demanded stricter standards, risking the exclusion of smallholder-led projects that cannot meet unrealistic timelines or bureaucratic burdens. Our position is clear: we stand for integrity, but true integrity must walk hand in hand with the realities of smallholder farmers and rural communities.
From Promises to Action: What needs to change
The shift from negotiation to action is happening now. COP30 sent a dual message: the conference highlighted the growing role of the Voluntary Carbon Market in mobilizing private climate finance, while emphasizing that its effectiveness depends on integrity, inclusivity, and community empowerment. Initiatives such as the Global Implementation Accelerator and Brazil’s Tropical Forests Forever Facility reflected this push, focusing on scaling nature-based solutions and forest protection with strong local leadership.
Ensuring long-term impact will require addressing equitable governance, customary land rights, and the integration of carbon finance mechanisms. The commitment to triple adaptation finance by 2035 and integrate nature-based solutions into national strategies marked a step forward, reinforcing the importance of grounding climate action in communities, and leveraging our most effective technology: nature.
We have examples of success, but we must now scale them so that more farmers, and the next generation, can adopt sustainable agricultural practices that benefit not only themselves and their families, but all of us. This requires simplifying the rules and adapting them to field realities. Our experience shows that this does not weaken integrity, quite the opposite. It strengthens adherence and enables durable implementation over time, because rules that are understood are rules that are applied. This is inclusion as an engine for impact, without compromising rigor, while aligning with local realities and ensuring truly inclusive governance.
Our new Position Paper, released ahead of COP30, tackles a crucial tension: integrity without pragmatism risks becoming integrity without impact. Drawing on our experience, we propose to review the guiding principles and improve the functioning of the Voluntary Carbon Market.
First, methodologies should not reflect a one-sided vision and must be grounded in reality. They should reflect the diverse conditions on the ground and be tested and validated by those implementing them. True progress comes from dialogue on equal footing with local practitioners, building trust, robustness, and scalability.
Second, we must prioritize action over perfection. Complexity and rigid requirements often lead to hesitation and delays, resulting in less carbon sequestration, less resilience gains, and less community benefits. Climate change leaves no time for waiting. The sector must embrace pragmatic approaches that value real-world action and iterative learning over the counterproductive security of waiting for perfect evidence before taking action.
In our Position Paper, we open the debate on concrete changes, such as: a dedicated certification pathway for smallholder-led nature based solutions projects; a solidarity mechanism on risk buffer; realistic crediting periods; a pragmatic approach to monitoring and evaluation; a reform of the standards governance with a real participation of field practitioners in the decisions; regulatory and fiscal conditions to encourage investment.
A Call to Movement
COP30 did not deliver a breakthrough for the Voluntary Carbon Market, but it did clarify the stakes. With its focus on turning pledges into action – ‘the COP of Implementation’ – and its emphasis on social justice and local leadership, the conference strongly reinforces our vision.
We envision a Voluntary Carbon Market that is not only effective but equitable: one that empowers communities, adapts to their realities, and truly serve those who steward the land and are the most affected by climate impacts.
What we propose responds to a need widely felt by all stakeholders involved in this type of project, whether they be governments, private companies, non-governmental organizations, experts, etc. Today, it is necessary to bring all these stakeholders together and demonstrate the courage to carry out the necessary reforms.
In the coming months, Livelihoods and our partners will engage standard-setters, investors, and governments to turn this vision into reality, bringing field experience into the rooms where rules are written.
Read our Position Paper, amplify our message and help us drive change. The Voluntary Carbon Market’ success will not be measured in credits traded, but in lives transformed.
By Bernard Giraud, Livelihoods President and Co-Founder and Eric Soubeiran, Livelihoods CEO
On November 5, 2025, we hosted our first Livelihoods Rendez-vous gathering about 200 people Paris and online, unveiling and discussing our Position Paper on making the Voluntary Carbon Market more inclusive for smallholder farmers.
Watch the full event here: