About the fund
The Livelihoods Carbon Fund #1 was launched in 2011 by 10 investors: Danone, Schneider Electric, Crédit Agricole S.A., Michelin, Hermès, SAP, Groupe Caisse des Dépôts, La Poste, Firmenich, and Voyageurs du Monde. LCF1 invested €45 million in mangrove restoration, agroforestry, and rural energy projects across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, structured around a long-term project pipeline (10–20 years per project). The fund's financial model is uniquely results-based: project developers receive upfront grants or concessional loans to implement large-scale restoration and sustainable agriculture interventions, and the fund receives certified carbon credits as payment when verifiable impact milestones are met — sequestered or avoided GHG emissions validated under international standards such as VCS (Verra). LCF1 has invested €40M in 9 projects across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, planted 130 million trees benefiting 1 million people, provided 120,000 households with efficient cookstoves, and sequestered 10 million tons of CO2 over 20 years. Illustrative LCF1 projects include the restoration of 10,000 hectares of mangroves in Senegal in partnership with local communities, and rural energy and agroforestry programs in India's Araku Valley. All economic benefits from projects — increased fish stocks, agricultural produce, forestry products — flow directly to local communities; the carbon credits are the fund's sole financial return, used by corporate investors to offset their own unavoidable residual emissions.
