How Verity Nature is Planting 4 Billion Trees in Kenya 🌳 | Duncan Van Der Merwe

In this episode of Carbon Exposure, we sit down with Duncan Van Der Merwe – Co-founder & Chair of Verity Nature to unpack one of the world’s most ambitious nature-based climate programmes.

Verity Nature is a profit-for-purpose company that designs, builds and operates large-scale nature restoration projects with local communities at the centre. From their base in Australia, with teams in New Zealand, East Africa and beyond, they focus on high-integrity carbon and co-benefit credits backed by science, technology and long-term operations. 

Their projects span reforestation and landscape regeneration in New Zealand (e.g. Black Hill Station in Canterbury and a large natural regeneration programme in the Chatham Islands) and blue carbon restoration pilots in Australia, where they’re restoring coastal and tidal ecosystems as future carbon sinks. 

At the heart of this conversation is Kenya. Under President Ruto’s national drive to plant 15 billion trees by 2032, the Kenyan government has asked Verity Nature to help restore degraded landscapes at unprecedented scale. 

Verity has proposed reforesting up to 4 billion native trees as part of this effort – potentially the largest ARR (Afforestation/Reforestation/Revegetation) programme in the voluntary carbon market. Their model combines:

Infrastructure-grade project design – 40-year operations with long-term permanence rights

Community-led restoration – partnering with local organisations like CCB Corridors and using mobile tools (e.g. “Si Si Na Miti”) so farmers and grandmothers can plant trees, track survival and earn income

Tech from satellites to blockchain – remote sensing, MRV and digital traceability to show exactly where credits come from and how trees are performing over time

What we cover: 

00:00 – Introduction: Why Nature-Based Removals Need Infrastructure Thinking

04:30 – Verity Nature’s Model: Building & Operating Long-Term Projects

09:00 – Why East Africa? Strategic Focus on Kenya and Uganda

14:00 – The Kenya Project: Tying into President Ruto’s 15-Billion-Tree Vision

19:30 – Planting Up to 4 Billion Trees: Scale, Design and Execution

25:00 – Communities, Farmers and Grandmothers: Why Women Are Central

31:00 – Tech Stack: From Satellites to Blockchain for Integrity & MRV

38:00 – Risk Management & Delivery: Avoiding the Non-Delivery Trap

45:00 – The 400M Credit Pipeline & the 2030 Removals Gap

51:00 – What Buyers Should Do Now & Closing Reflections