^{Mountains, farms, and houses in the highlands of Ethiopia. Photo: Wollwerth Imagery / Adobe Stock}

Ethiopia has had 14.9 million verified emission reductions (tCO₂e) issued under the first monitoring period of the Oromia Forested Landscape Program (OFLP), of which 12.4 million are available for carbon market transaction. Following independent verification, the emission reductions were issued by the World Bank under the ISFL Standard and are now recorded in the World Bank's Carbon Asset Tracking System (CATS).

The volume of issued emission reductions exceeds the quantity contracted for purchase under the Emission Reductions Purchase Agreement (ERPA) for the 2022-2023 monitoring period.

This marks a significant milestone for Ethiopia, the BioCarbon Fund Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes (ISFL), and the continued development of high-integrity jurisdictional carbon markets. For Ethiopia, it reflects more than a decade of sustained commitment by the Government of Ethiopia, the Oromia regional government, development partners, and the hundreds of thousands of forest-dependent communities working to protect and restore Oromia's forests—home to more than 30 million people and over half of the country's forest cover.

This issuance reinforces ISFL’s role as a carbon market enabler, helping countries build the institutional, technical, and environmental foundations needed to generate high-integrity jurisdictional emission reductions and participate in international carbon markets. It also shows that jurisdictional approaches to sustainable landscape management can generate verified, high-integrity emission reductions under a robust standard while supporting climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, job creation, and sustainable rural livelihoods.

The issuance also positions Ethiopia to mobilize additional finance through international carbon markets, creating new incentives to sustain forest conservation and support low-carbon and resilient development.

For more information on the Oromia Forested Landscape Program and the issued emission reductions, visit the World Bank Carbon Asset Tracking System (CATS) program page.