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High-integrity, nature-based carbon removal projects are showing up in more and more carbon investors’ portfolios. Whether it’s because of the endorsement of nature-based solutions (NBS) by standard-setting bodies, the advance market commitments like the Symbiosis and LEAF Coalition dedicating millions of dollars to this project type, or the strong cobenefits they deliver, these credits are becoming more and more popular.

You’ve probably seen all the big deals coming across your feed in this sector. Meta purchased over 676,000 nature-based removal credits with EFM. Microsoft purchased 1.5 million tons of nature-based removal credits from Climate Impact Partners. And on and on it goes.

As buyers are only planning on buying more and more NBS removal credits, what do project developers like you have to do to get your carbon projects in the mix?

In this blog, we’ll uncover the interest behind this credit type, identify the top buyers and sellers of high-integrity nature-based removal credits, and outline what buyers are looking for before purchasing these type of projects.

Proof is in the pudding: high-integrity NBS projects are growing and valuable 

It’s well established that we need carbon credits like nature-based carbon removals to reach net-zero.  The IPCC shared that agriculture, forestry, and other land uses (AFOLU) can “provide 20-30% of the mitigation needed for a 1.5℃ or 2℃ pathway towards 2050.” 

These credits often wield strong co-benefits to the local community and environment on top of their ability to sequester carbon. Not to mention, they are also quick to start having a climate impact, which can be rather attractive to buyers.

But, you don’t just have to take our word for it. Just look at the numbers on the growing interest in this sector.

MSCI found that nature-based removal offtake agreements hit record highs in 2024. They even tracked the number of publicly reported nature-based offtake deals in the graph below, and it visually displays just how stark the rise in interest actually is.

The number of publicly reported deals in H1 2024 was already 10x that of 2022 and 2x that of 2023.

And it’s not looking like the interest will stop any time soon. 

Retirements of nature-based removal credits rose by a record 25% in the past year.

Since buyers are demonstrating increasing interest in nature-based removal projects, suppliers offering these credits can benefit from a price premium. According to the World Bank’s “State and Trends of Carbon Pricing 2025,” credit prices for nature-based removal credits commanded high forward prices and higher pricetags overall.

There’s a strong opportunity in this field for ambitious project developers. However, we recommend they delve into best practices to provide projects of the utmost quality, and that starts by looking at which companies are leading this market and what we can learn from them.

Top deals, buyers, and sellers of NBS removal credits

There’s no shortage of major NBS buyers and suppliers in the carbon markets as of late, however, the name you’ve probably heard over and over again is Microsoft.

Microsoft has engaged in some of the largest investments in this side of the carbon market. Some of their more recent deals involved contracting 18M tonnes of afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation projects from Rubicon (one of the largest deals of its kind), 3M tonnes of improved forest management credits from EFM, and 1.4M tonnes from Living Carbon where they’ll be reforesting land in the Appalachian region that had been impacted by mining.

To that end, it might be no surprise that Microsoft is among the top buyers of NBS removal carbon credits, having contracted a total of 29.4M tonnes of NBS removals as of 2025. TotalEnergies is the second largest buyer of these types of carbon credits, having contracted a total of 10M tonnes. Meta follows closely behind them, having contracted 8.7M tonnes of carbon.

The top sellers, meanwhile, are Catona Climate who has sold a total of 15.1M tonnes, Forêt Ressources Management who has sold a total of 10M tonnes, and BTG Pactual TIG who has sold a total of 9.3M tonnes.

Let’s dive deeper into each one:

Catona Climate

Project types: Afforestation, Agroforestry, and ARR

Methodologies: VM0042, VM0026, and AR-ACM003

Registries: Verra 

Catona Climate provides nature-based climate removal projects around the world. Backed by buyers like Microsoft, Deloitte, and Meta, we can learn a thing or two from them. 

Their impact page details their monitoring frameworks for the climate, environment, and community. They display how they’re tracking biodiversity through bioacoustic monitoring, food security through community surveys and observational data, and deforestation drivers through sensors, kitchen performance tests, and surveys.

However, what’s key is that they’re using colloquial language to do so in order to connect with people from a wide range of backgrounds, not just the sustainability team that can review all the technical details in a project description later on in the buying process.

They are communicating their expertise without speaking another language. For example, they just say, “Bioacoustic monitoring devices listen to birds, frogs, and other wildlife — allowing us to track changes in species diversity and measure overall biodiversity health.” They're evoking the imagery of the environment that they're working in while still explaining why it matters and makes their credits scientifically rigorous. As long as they have the nitty gritty results of the bioacoustic monitoring to show off later, this is a strong way of quickly communicating impact without getting overly technical for non-technical people.

They’re also using testimonials from their smallholder farmer partners alongside photos. This continues to bring their impact to life. For example, they have a quote from Tobias, one of their partners, that says, “‘Now, I can get something to put in my pocket. I am using the money to pay school fees…and our daily bread.’” This makes the impact feel that much more tangible.

On their website, they also highlight one of their major projects, “Gardens of Opportunity: Lake Victoria Watershed Agroforestry” in a compelling manner. Right off the bat, they engage in strong storytelling to bring the project to life. Here is a snippet to give you an idea of what we’re talking about:

“The sun is barely cutting through the leaves of the trees overhead and towering maize stalks, but it promises to deliver oppressive heat by midday. Already the air surrounding Joseph’s farm is warm and dry as he sips tea and finishes his githeri, a traditional meal, before heading out for the day. Patting his children’s heads on the way out as they prepare for school, he strides over to pick up a hoe and shovel next to the house before disappearing into the forest. … He hears his children’s voices filter through the leaves as they head out for school and smiles — knowing he is not just growing new crops, but building a home that will sustain his family for generations.”

In this narrative-like project description, they are making the impact they are making on the community clear by creating a story from the farmer’s perspective. It makes it all feel much more personal. This is a strong tactic for project developers to employ in sales and marketing materials.

On top of that, their project page is highly transparent while still maintaining that conversational tone. They include:

1. A timeline of milestones like third-party validation, credit issuances, and the estimated tonnes of carbon removals
2. Information on the direct payments given to the farmers enrolled in this program
3. Information on the array of community benefits: food security, farmer training, community governance, etc..
4. Information on the array of environmental benefits: stronger soil health, an increase in biodiversity, etc.
5. Project design details, like how they engage stakeholders
6. Project due diligence details like prior land use, land rights, additionality, durability, permanence
7. MRV details
8. Monitoring updates

These details are incredibly important to stakeholders during the buying process, and they give them an edge when they’re written in a way that’s easy to digest.

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Forêt Ressources Management

Project types: Afforestation

Methodologies: REDD+

Registries: Verra

Forêt Ressources Management has been working in the sustainable forestry sector since 1987, and the carbon markets since the early 2000s. Since then, they’ve been working on restoring ecosystems, sequestering carbon, and building finances across Africa with project locations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.

They make their impact front and center on their homepage. They show that they’ve planted over 26M hectares of managed natural forests, planted over 21M trees, and created 396 local jobs. This level of social proof is appealing to potential buyers.

They also display a strong focus on the team driving the work, which further builds trust with the readers. They have written up a founding story about their founder, who holds a PH.D. in natural sciences and has worked in tropical forests for over 40 years. They have photos of their teams across the world doing the work as well, which creates trust with the reader. Not to mention, the years of experience they highlight also position them as a major player in the space. 

What is strong about their project communication is that they make the following key details skimmable:

• Project location
• Type of vegetation before planting
• Area of project
• Cultivated species
• Benefits produced like reduced pressure on natural forests, local job creation, sustainable charcoal production, etc..

Their way of leveraging their expertise in the space and the easily skimmable project impact details they shared is something other project developers can model their own process after.

BTG Pactual TIG

Project types: Reforestation

Methodologies: Not publicly available

Registries: Not publicly available

BTG Pactual Timberland Investment Group looks to create forestry projects at scale in the US and Latin America. They manage over 2.6M acres and have planted 38 million trees in 2024, and have made headlines in 2024 for Meta’s investment in their $1B Latin American reforestation projects. Meta purchased 1.3M of their NBS removal credits. These credits don’t just reforest, but also protect biodiversity and provide more financial opportunities to the local communities.

This investment included credits from the Cerrado biome, which they later reported in April 2025 that they have restored more than 10,000 hectares in that region, which was previously deforested land. Keeping their readers informed on their projects peels back the curtains on their operations and helps build trust.

This is a strong communications strategy that can be woven into your own.

What the top three NBS removal sellers had in common

Overall, what you’ll find when evaluating what these top three sellers have in common is that they all:

• Clearly showcase their environmental and social impacts, through highlighting the communities involved and behind the project, as well as their own team's involvement
• Bolster their impact by using numbers and statistics wherever possible
• Surface key buyers and investors
• Use language that could be understood by professionals from all backgrounds 
• Regularly providing updates on their projects

However, there is more than meets the eye of what buyers are looking for that you might not be able to surface right away. We need to hear from the buyers what exactly convinced them to sign the dotted line.

Straight from the source: What buyers want to see from NBS removal solutions

Even after looking at project developers who have had successful deals, it can be tough to understand what to incorporate into your development strategy or what’s most important to highlight in your marketing materials.

Lucky for them, more and more buyers are starting to come out with information on how they vet their purchases.

Our team pulled the most pertinent information from Microsoft’s Criteria for High Quality CDR and Shopify’s Playbook on How to Kick-Start the Carbon Removal Market to help you better align with buyer expectations.

What major corporations are evaluating in their NBS removal projects

There’s no magic bullet to make a sale, but there are tweaks in your communications and sales material that you can make to turn a prospect’s head. We’ve compiled a list of six factors from the two aforementioned resources that were found to be most critical in sales conversations, and tips on how you can weave them into your project plan.

1. Projects with comprehensive benefits that go beyond carbon

Microsoft views it as essential that carbon removal projects don’t just minimize new social harms from their carbon projects, but that their projects actively add new social benefits, so you should make it exceptionally clear how you do so.

Large buyers are especially interested in the social benefits of nature-based projects because these projects are so tied to the land and the communities surrounding them. Their co-benefits are a key impact measure for their success.

Additionally, it’s important for all project developers to deliver clarity around additionality, permanence, and quantifiable co-benefits. If they can’t deliver strong stories around these factors, they won’t be able to stand out in the market. 

Buyers are also particularly interested in co-benefits like job generation or profit sharing for the local communities, since they are often doing a significant amount of work for or related to the carbon projects. They also want proof of how these benefits will last even after the carbon project is completed.

Here are a few ways you can demonstrate that you go beyond carbon:

• Detail how you encourage biodiversity, bolster land resilience, preserve local cultural heritage, and align with SDGs.
• Showcase how you’re in constant contact with the community, whether it’s through photos, stakeholder meeting notes, surveys, etc.
• Scan your project site and look for ecosystems that can additionally benefit from your carbon project, and then report on how you’re doing so.
• Many NBS removal solutions provide employment opportunities to local communities or engage in profit sharing. Demonstrate the amount of funding going towards these communities and how they will receive these funds (whether it’s through cash or scholarships or lasting community services set up via your carbon financing). 
• Surface how you’re providing the local communities with leadership opportunities and propping up their voice.
• Come up with lasting economic opportunities for communities involved by setting up initiatives like workforce development programs.

Project highlight: Delta Blue Carbon

Delta Blue Carbon is one of the largest Blue Carbon projects on the market. They expect to restore 350,000 hectares of mangroves. However, they’re not just focused on the health of these coastal ecosystems, but they’re looking at the health of the coastal communities as well.

They’re working on improving access to the Basic Health Units in the area, bringing Community Health Workers to the area, providing ambulances, and installing mobile health systems. Regardless of the work they are doing with the mangroves, this makes a tangible difference in the communities for generations to come.

They employ photos of these services and centers side by side with the information about the services they are providing. This helps add weight to their claims.

2. Projects have to make it clear they’re doing more good than harm

It may come as no surprise that buyers need to evaluate any potential present-day or future environmental forecasts that might increase the risk of reversal or result in any potential negative outcomes of the project. Buyers are also looking for any evidence of improper carbon accounting.

Project developers should proactively demonstrate what they’re doing to avoid these negative outcomes.

Following CCP-approved methodologies (which are pre-vetted methodologies that give buyers more peace of mind), providing robust additionality assessments, and having real-time data to back up your claims is how to start building that level of trust with your prospect. 

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (or ICVCM), in particular, calls on the use of the latest tech within projects looking to bolster trust with buyers. They say, “We must build trust in the market around new and emerging methodologies for designing carbon removal projects and measuring their success using technology like AI remote sensing, drone technology, satellite imagery and real-time monitoring.”

It’s also important for project developers to check in on their own scope 3 emissions as a result of their project and account for that to ensure they’re having an overall positive impact.

Here are a few ways you can demonstrate this:

• Detail the training you provide workers, any potential hazards they might face, and the reporting channels you’re using to track any adverse events
• Clearly outline land tenure rights. Ensure all stakeholders are on the same page.
• Take note of local and indigenous approaches to the land, and make sure your project methodology is compatible with them.
• Outline any potential negative impacts that you might have on surrounding ecosystems (even from waste handling and disposal from your supply chain) and how you plan to address them.

3. Commercially ready projects

Corporate leaders, before making a large carbon purchase, view their purchase as an investment that can unlock maximum change. Therefore, they want to make sure the project developer is ready to take the next leap and expand with the extra cash flow they receive from the purchase. Shopify even shared that they asked each organization prior to investment, “‘How will our funds help you reach the next stage?’”

That means that they’re looking for project developers who have worked out all the operational speed bumps (and can prove it). All they need is an influx of funding that could make their blueprints a reality.

Here are a few ways you can demonstrate that your projects are commercially ready:

• Shopify shared that “Our purchases enabled companies to fund research, pilot plants, equipment purchases, and establish monitoring and verification standards.” Consider these factors as a jumping off point to brainstorm what it is that this purchase can unlock from you aside from funds. Having these plans and aspirations is impressive to potential buyers.
• Sufficiently showcase that you can’t deploy the project without carbon finance. Provide a breakdown of how the funds will set your project up for success.
• Be ready to share cost curve projections as you scale, and the calculations that your projections are rooted in.

4. Long-term storage of carbon for 100 years or more

Large corporate buyers (with deep funds) don’t want to see projects that just tick the permanence box. They want to see real durability that can last for over a hundred years — at least. Microsoft actually classifies 100 years of durability as part of their low-durability solutions (with medium-durability being classed at anywhere between 100-1,000 years and high-durability being greater than 1,000 years). 

Keeping stringent tabs on the durability of the carbon projects they invest in is how corporations can ensure their climate commitments never falter.

Here is how you can demonstrate your durability:

• If your project meets this criteria, ensure potential buyers don’t have to dig for this information. Highlight it on your site, PDDs, and other marketing materials.

Project highlight: Chestnut Carbon

Chestnut Carbon creates afforestation credits that you can find on Gold Standard, and their nature-based removal credits are in high demand. In fact, they’re actually the fourth top supplier as of June 2025. They’ve sold 7.4M tonnes of carbon credits.

They also make their connection to durability incredibly clear on their “About” page. Take a look at how:

• Header: “We stand for durability” 
• “Our long-term projects capture and sequester millions of tons of carbon dioxide, stored for 100 years or more given our conservation easements”

First, they draw the eye to their stance on durability by having it in a header. Then, they say in a straightforward manner that they meet the minimum requirements for durability that these corporate buyers are looking for.

5. Current life cycle analysis of the project and at scale

Buyers like Shopify are looking at a project’s LCA and how it can potentially scale before deciding to purchase carbon credits from them. This helps them determine how many carbon credits are currently being generated and how many carbon credits could be generated in the future. That information helps them understand how many offsets they might be able to plan for.

That means project developers need to have a projection, rooted in data and research, ready to show to buyers.

Here are a few ways you can demonstrate this:

• Clearly communicating all project-related emission sources
• Utilize stringent data driven by the latest dMRV tech.
• Employ regional sampling and data collection techniques in addition to just model/statistical methods

6. Timing and potential to scale

It’s important to buyers that a project and its associated impact will only continue to grow, especially after receiving more carbon finance. They want to feel like they’re placing the right bets on which organization to purchase nature-based removals from.

They also want to feel like they’re choosing the right time to invest in your carbon credits. They’re wondering if they could get a better deal if they wait a year? If they invest now, is there a chance the project could fall through?

Here are a few ways you can demonstrate your potential to scale:

• Show all the ways you intend to grow your footprint and why your plan is viable.
• Brainstorm your carbon reduction targets, and publicize them.
• Report on your progress towards your carbon reduction targets and how you’re making that progress.
• Highlight your target annual removal amount and cost per tonne. When providing these numbers, tell the story that will prove to them why they shouldn’t wait until your organization (and prices) grow more and get those carbon credits of yours now, rather than later.

Additional ways Shopify evaluated its NBS developers

Shopify also shared the questions they asked each project developer engaging in nature-based removals before purchasing their carbon credits. These questions, while unique to Shopify, are important for all project developers to be able to answer before engaging in sales conversations with major corporations.

The three questions they asked were:

1. “What would a purchase from Shopify do for your company?”
2. “What barriers exist right now?”
3. “What is your greatest uncertainty?”

When taking in these questions, it’s clear buyers are looking for a comprehensive and transparent understanding of where projects are and how they could grow. They want project developers who come equipped with coherent, well-thought-out plans.  

Shopify also shared its investment terms overview (seen below) in its “Playbook on How to Kick-Start the Carbon Removal Market.” Project developers should use this resource to further frame the content of their marketing and sales materials.

Armed with two major corporations’ criteria for purchase, tips to align with them, the common questions they asked in sales conversations, and even an investment term overview from Shopify, you have the right items in your toolkit to lock down a sale for your NBS removal credits.

Ready to scale your nature-based removal solutions?

Incorporate these best practices to have stronger sales conversations and land more deals.

As the time comes to start delivering these credits and refining your processes, turn to Catalyst to keep your operations streamlined. It’s a purpose-built commerce software for project developers (that also provides access to some of the largest demand channels around the world).

Get your demo here.