Regenerative Agriculture in South America

Regenerative agriculture is a sustainable way to produce food, restore nature and combat climate change by storing carbon from the air in the soil.

Extreme weather events are rapidly increasing worldwide. Argentina is currently dealing with the worst drought in 130 years. Millions of hectares are degraded: no grass, no water, no bugs, no life, thus no production and no carbon sequestration. This partially has to do with the conventional way of farming and grazing management, resulting in soil degradation. Regenerative agriculture can be a great solution to reverse soil degradation and shift towards regeneration.

Regenerative grazing

Regenerative grazing is a sustainable farming practice that mimics the natural grazing patterns of wild herbivore herds. By strategically moving livestock across pastures, farmers can restore degraded land, improve soil health, and enhance biodiversity. This method involves simulating the behavior of wild herds, which are constantly on the move, densely packed against predators. The herd tramples, eats, and fertilizes patches of grassland for a few days before moving on. This allows the land to rest and recover, resulting in deeper root structures and increased microbial activity.

This symbiotic relationship between animals and grasses has evolved over millions of years and is crucial for healthy grasslands. Unfortunately, many modern livestock systems operate in the opposite way, with continuous grazing and reliance on external feeding inputs. This can have devastating consequences, such as deforestation and soil degradation.

To successfully implement regenerative grazing, careful planning is essential. Farmers must determine where the animals will be, when they will graze, and for how long. Factors such as climate data, soil characteristics, and the number of people working on the farm must all be considered. An integrated application can help ensure that planning procedures are followed and can be adapted as the landscape and climate change.

About the project

Ruuts and Anthesis are developing a large-scale VERRA carbon programme that will aid farmers to transfer from their conventional practices into regenerative agriculture. Financing and rewarding this transition are of key importance to ignite that switch. Based on expressions of interest, we expect to add over 500,000 hectares to the programme which will generate over 1 million tonnes of CO2 removed per year. We are aiming for a true paradigm shift.

Dispute and Grievance Process

The SARA team is open to learn and wants to continuously improve. In case any dispute or grievance may arise during or due to the program implementation, please share these with info@anthesisgroup.nl, Geert.eenhoorn@anthesisgroup.com or Teun.smorenburg@anthesisgroup.com. The procedure used by the SARA team to address the disputes and grievances is described in the document here.  Whenever the first dispute or grievance is received, both the dispute/grievance as well as the resolution found shall be made publicly available, in accordance with the requirements of Verra’s Voluntary Carbon Standard.