LIVING CARBON
A Stewardship Framework for Carbon Futures
Storing and capturing carbon are part of the same living cycle involving plants, soil and ultimately rock. We must understand this cycle to steward carbon as life.
Living Carbon is a carbon-market innovation that combines Indigenous stewardship, ecological restoration and long-term carbon protection to support climate mitigation and adaptation.
The model is grounded in a simple reality: the Earth's most stable carbon stores are geological. Meanwhile, living ecosystems such as forests, wetlands, peatlands and soils play a vital role in capturing and storing atmospheric carbon. Human activity has disrupted this balance by releasing carbon from long-term geological storage while degrading many of the ecosystems that naturally absorb it.
Living Carbon responds by bringing together two complementary approaches: protecting existing carbon stores and restoring the natural systems that capture and sequester carbon. Drawing on Indigenous and traditional understandings of stewardship, the model supports long-term care for both the landscapes that hold carbon and the ecosystems that sustain it.
Protect Ancient Carbon
Many Indigenous cultures recognise mountains, rocks and landscapes as places of ancestral significance and responsibility. Living Carbon applies these stewardship principles to the protection of carbon-rich geological systems, supporting approaches that prevent the unnecessary disturbance, extraction and release of long-stored carbon. In practical terms, this includes supporting Indigenous and local communities as custodians of carbon-rich landscapes and advocating for the protection of critical geological carbon reserves.
Restore Living Systems
Living Carbon supports nature-based solutions that remove carbon from the atmosphere and strengthen ecosystem health. These include reforestation, afforestation, forest restoration, peatland conservation, regenerative land management and soil-carbon enhancement. By increasing the capacity of living systems to capture and store carbon, these interventions contribute directly to climate mitigation while generating biodiversity and community benefits.
Invest in Living Carbon
Living Carbon creates opportunities for a new generation of carbon finance that supports Indigenous stewardship, carbon sovereignty and ecosystem restoration. By investing in the communities and landscapes that protect and restore carbon stores, the model helps shift carbon markets from extractive transactions towards regenerative, long-term stewardship. In doing so, it creates value for climate, biodiversity and communities while supporting the people who have long acted as guardians of the world's most important carbon-rich landscapes.
