My name is Owen, and I recently submitted a proposal to the registry for a new Desert Regreening Credit Class.
This methodology is centered on using biocarpeting and Holistic Management to reverse desertification and generate a new kind of ecocredit. I’ve designed it to quantify the full range of benefits, from carbon sequestration and water retention to biodiversity uplift.
I’m sharing the proposal here to get feedback from the wider community. I believe this could be a powerful way to unlock significant funding for large-scale desert restoration, and I’m eager to collaborate with builders, ecologists, and developers to make this a reality.
Owen, congratulations on the progress you’ve made so far. I haven’t read the full proposal yet, but I want to acknowledge the importance of your work and the effort it takes to bring it this far. Regreening deserts is both immensely challenging and deeply impactful, and the use of mob grazing and Holistic Management can indeed be powerful tools.
At the same time, I recognize that in brittle, arid landscapes, measurable carbon gains are often elusive despite ranchers’ best efforts. Yet the ecosystem service benefits—water retention, biodiversity, soil health—are usually obvious to anyone who spends time on the ground.
I’m especially curious about your model: how you’re bundling these multiple outcomes together, how you’re valuing benefits beyond carbon, and whether your approach still leaves room to credit carbon where measurable change emerges over time.
Thanks again for putting this forward—I’m looking forward to seeing how this evolves.
Hi @OwenLangham - thanks for sharing your approach here. I agree with @RegenChristian, both on the potential impact and the challenges of working to regreen deserts.
Definitely crowd source community feedback for the initial proposal– you can also share on the Regen Registry Hylo of project developers to see if folks check it out there: Hylo . There are a few folks in there that do rehydration work in arid and semi-arid landscapes that I can tag onto your post.
If you are interested in going through the Regen Registry Program and/or using our methodology development and review services, check out our process in our Handbook here for submitting concept notes for review, etc. If you want to proceed with submitting a concept note then let’s have a call to talk through the process in more detail and associated fees. Looking forward to seeing the methodology take shape!
Hi Christian! Great to hear back from you. The way I plan on weaving together the various metrics into one total ‘score’ or value for credit issuance is as follows:
Credits are bundled into a single “Desert Regreening Credit” per hectare, reflecting both carbon and co-benefits:
Formula: Total Credits = Carbon Credits + (Soil Health + Water Cycle + Biodiversity + Vegetation Credits).
I am hoping to pilot a test trial to gather specific data which we can then scale to make predictions for a larger scale applications. Photo evidence of lush revegetation has been provided by Rodger Savory and is often shown during his talks and interviews.
Hi Olivia, the idea is to measure biodiversity uplift using a functional biodiversity index which uses transect surveys counting perennial grasses, pollinators, or soil fauna at baseline and at assessment; potentially with optional eDNA sampling for validation. The target will be to increase species diversity by at least 5 functional types (e.g., from 2 to 7). This could translate into credits at the scale of +0.3 credits per 5 additional species or groups per hectare.
I am open to any suggestions to refine this approach, so feel free to share any thoughts.