Climate change with uncertain weather conditions constitute one of the main challenges for local communities in the East African region. Vi Agroforestry collaborates with local farmer organizations, government agencies, and civil society to empower communities through holistic agricultural development projects that implement Sustainable Agriculture Land Management (SALM) practices, such as agroforestry. Our initiatives aim to enhance climate resilience, food security, and income for smallholder farmer families in Sub-Saharan Africa. We adopt a human rights-based approach which benefits women, men, youth, and children alike.
Our SALM and agroforestry methods specifically strives to promote a diversification of species planted and animals reared on farmland. These methods have enhanced biodiversity, both through direct diversification of crops but also indirectly through promoting an environment where species of animals, insects, and plants can thrive.
Vi Agroforestry also have experience in combining agroforestry and climate finance through voluntary carbon markets with our first project initiated in 2009. We played a pioneering role in developing the methodology in collaboration with the World Bank.
We have three ongoing carbon projects, all implementing SALM and agroforestry, (Tree Sustain Life, Kenyan Agricultural Carbon Project, and Mt. Elgon) and are actively involved in all stages of carbon project development, from project design to monitoring, marketing, and benefit-sharing. Our holistic engagement across the carbon market value chain provides us with extensive experience and expertise in AFOLU carbon projects. In a nutshell, our overarching operation and carbon projects provide numerous ecosystem services, supporting both local livelihoods and critical ecological functions.
We have, with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), launched an expert desk in 2024 where we provide support, knowledge and experience regarding holistic, inclusive, and sustainable agricultural carbon projects. Specifically, within the following thematic areas:
- Carbon project development
- Carbon project implementation
- Standards and verification
- Carbon markets
- Biodiversity and livelihoods
Our experts
Monica Nderitu
Dr. Monica Nderitu is the Regional Environment and Climate Change Advisor at Vi Agroforestry with a broad background as a researcher and a consultant.
She provides technical expertise in environmental sustainability, sustainable land management (SLM), agroforestry, biodiversity, ecosystem services, climate change resilience and smallholder farmer empowerment and gender mainstreaming in programs.
Ferdinand Okinyi
Ferdinand Okinyi has a professional background in dairy science and technology, agribusiness management, project management and development studies. He has a total of 23 years of work experience, including 6 years in corporate work within the dairy sector focusing on extension, production, and manufacturing, and 17 years in development work involving coordination, value chain management, and business development.
Currently, Ferdinand works as a project manager at Vi Agroforestry Kenya for the Livelihoods Mt. Elgon Project, a carbon project based on the dairy sector’s value chain focusing on livelihoods and benefits from soil organic carbon, biochar, and emission reduction in production. He has expertise in the implementation and management of carbon projects, including implementation and monitoring for validation and verification.
Peter Wachira
Peter Wachira holds an MSc and a BSc in Applied Statistics from Maseno University and an MSc in Data Analysis from KCA University. He has extensive experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating development programs addressing poverty alleviation, economic development, and climate change. He also conducts research in ICT and sustainable agriculture programs.
Currently, he works as a Regional Advisor for ICT and Carbon Projects at Vi Agroforestry. Wachira has collaborated with funders such as the World Bank BioCarbon Fund, Sida, and ICRAF to explore climate financing options for smallholder farmers in Africa. He has published numerous articles in scientific journals and contributed to the region’s development in monitoring and evaluation, GIS, remote sensing, and financial statistics.
Rashid Malya
Rashid is the Program Manager at Vi Agroforestry in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Previously, he worked at Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania as a Project Manager for four agroecological projects and led research at the SAT Farmers Training Centre. He has extensive experience in agriculture with a focus on smallholder farmers, particularly youth and young mothers, and sustainable rural development.
Rashid has also coordinated carbon offset projects such as the Tree Planting Heroes (TPH Project) and the Emiti Nibwo Bulora project, as well as the Smallholder Coffee Development Project (CODE-P). He is familiar with all seven agroecological zones in Tanzania. Rashid holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agronomy from Sokoine University of Agriculture and speaks Kiswahili and English.
Matilda Palm
Matilda Palm is an ECCR, Agroforestry Advisor at Vi Agroforestry’s head office in Sweden. She holds a PhD in Forest and Climate Policy from the University of Gothenburg and has completed a postdoc at Chalmers University of Technology and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). Matilda has extensive experience in conducting research and working with environmental, livelihoods, and climate change programs.
Linnea Pasquier
Linnea holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography at Stockholm University and is finalizing her master’s degree in Sustainable Food Systems at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. She is the Vice president of the Swedish agroforestry association. Her expertise includes ecosystem services, agroforestry, agroecology, SALM methods, biodiversity, climate finance, environmental and climate policy. Linnea has practical, academic, and policy experience in agroforestry across both temperate and tropical regions. She speaks english, swedish, french and some spanish. In her free time, she loves gardening, looking at trees and exploring new hidden tracks.
