Funga and the American Forest Foundation Empower Family Landowners to Grow New Forests and Restore Soil Biodiversity

Forests are a powerful tool in the fight against climate change. As the "lungs of the Earth," they naturally absorb and store vast amounts of carbon, making them a powerful tool to combat the climate crisis. One way to utilize forests for additional carbon storage is to identify underused farmlands and establish new, healthy forests in their place. In theory, carbon markets are perfect for enabling this kind of land conversion, but hard-to-navigate processes and prohibitive upfront costs have left many small private landowners out of this important work. Since a sizable portion of land suitable for this kind of conversion is owned by families and individuals, excluding these landowners reduces our ability to accelerate carbon storage.

A new collaboration between AFF and Funga is closing this gap. We're empowering owners of underused agricultural land to access climate finance through the voluntary carbon market and establish new forests with restored soil biodiversity, ensuring we maximize the climate impact of all available land.

AFF and the Fields & Forests Project

Fields & Forests is a carbon project of the American Forest Foundation (AFF), a national conservation organization that empowers family landowners to create a meaningful conservation impact on their property.  Fields & Forests equips private landowners in the Southeastern U.S. with the resources needed to convert underused farmland into carbon-storing forestland. Utilizing this land for carbon storage is low-maintenance for the owner. This gives landowners the opportunity to access carbon payments and diversify their income.

About Funga

For a tree to thrive, it needs a healthy soil microbiome—a whole community of tiny fungi and microbes that work in partnership with its roots to provide nutrients. When this soil is depleted by past practices, a newly planted forest can struggle to grow. Funga reintroduces a biodiverse, healthy microbiome to the soil of seedlings at the time of planting, restoring their growing potential. By restoring the soil, trees can grow faster and stronger, increasing the amount of carbon they store.

A Collaborative Approach to Afforestation

Funga’s soil restoration can amplify the impact of programs like AFF’s. The biodiversity in these soils has been affected by many harvesting cycles, and natural soil regeneration can take decades. Funga’s reintroduction of soil biodiversity can start these new forests on a stronger foundation and help them to survive through environmental stressors like weather, pests, and pathogens.

This year, AFF and Funga are launching a collaborative project that will convert 1,000 acres of underused land into carbon-storing forestland with biodiverse soil microbes. By leveraging AFF's expertise in afforestation and Funga's innovative soil restoration technology, we are creating a more powerful, synergistic approach to establishing new forests.

Empowering the Families Behind Our Forests

By working together to maximize the positive impact of this carbon project, and including small family landowners in our work, AFF and Funga are modeling a new path for nature-based solutions. We believe this collaborative approach with local communities can unlock massive opportunities to create sustainable and impactful climate solutions. A win for the planet, and a win for the people.