AJA Climate Solutions

AJA Climate Solutions (AJA) is a Singapore-based entity started with the purpose of commercialising the opportunities of carbon markets. The company aims to generate and manage nature-based climate mitigation projects in Africa retaining oversight of the entire life cycle of projects in order to deliver transparency and accountability to all stakeholders. AJA has its foundations in 30 years of on-the-ground work in Africa on climate, community and carbon initiatives by the Nature Conservation Research Centre.

The name AJA Climate Solutions is inspired by the word ‘AJA’ is from the Yoruba language which means the Spirit of the forest and the animals living there. Yoruba is the language spoken by the indigenous people of southwestern Nigeria. Yoruba is a familiar language to the founders of AJA Climate Solutions – John Mason and Alan Hodges - both of whom were born and spent their formative years growing up in Nigeria.

Nature Conservation Research Centre. AJA works closely with the Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC), a leading NGO in Africa. NCRC is a leader in identifying and developing carbon projects that yield both economic and environmental success. Since 2007, NCRC has been involved in more than $500 million worth of nature-based carbon initiatives across Africa with financing from the World Bank.

NCRC’s accomplishments include launching some of the earliest and most successful projects in Ghana that formally involve the participation of local communities in the management of wildlife.

Known as Community Resource Management Areas (CREMA), these projects have included women-led organic shea butter initiatives and the production of climate-smart cocoa. NCRC is particularly well-known for leading the technical partnership to design the Bale Mountains Ecozone Project for FARM Africa and Oromia Regional State Government, which has resulted in over 11 million tonnes of emissions reductions transacted, and for facilitating a pan-African dialogue which led to the programs that positively impacted forest lands in Ghana and Ethiopia.
Ethiopia Coffee Forest Forum is an Ethiopian NGO with a 20-year track record focused on developing strategies for sustainable use and conservation of the coffee forests of Ethiopia.

ECFF is a highly respected and credible entity in the coffee space and has been an ongoing partner to the AJA-NCRC consortium since 2010.
Compassionate Carbon. Eden Reforestation is an American NGO engaged in landscape restoration projects to achieve holistic restoration and direct local partnerships and to generate substantive benefits for the local communities, regional biodiversity, and global climate.

Eden has a global track record in tree planting with approximately 1 billion seedlings planted. Eden has established a for profit partner called Compassionate Carbon which has entered a collaboration agreement with AJA. Eden has an Ethiopia registered entity that will collaborate with AJA and ECFF on projects in Ethiopia.

FPIC is a concept enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

We ensure that populations and communities are fully aware of and understand development initiatives planned for their lands (informed), that they receive adequate information well in advance of implementation, providing the time needed to consider and deliberate on the project (prior), and that any consent and contributions are given freely, without interference or pressure (free). This commitment differentiates AJA from many other organizations, companies, and governments in the region that lack the ability to ensure free, prior, and informed consent, or prioritise a speedy process over genuine engagement and ownership.

AJA approaches all of its work with a deep commitment to working with and supporting indigenous peoples and local communities. We make it a priority to ask questions, listen and collaborate with indigenous leaders and communities. This kind of community engagement is the entry point for successful conservation. AJA will bring that unparalleled experience to building a pipeline of robust certified nature based projects that match clients’ requirements for new nature-based carbon credit solutions around the world.

Identify a pipeline of nature-based projects across Africa.
Understand and assess the relevant country’s regulatory framework.
Evaluate and select the best development team and in-country partnerships.
Deliver the project development investment.
Provide leadership regarding technical design.
Ensure sound legal agreements are in place.

Deliver emission reductions to clients.
Build capacity of all project partners.
Ensure project validation and verification.
Build a robust market for carbon credit transactions.
Ensure a return on investment.
Deliver benefits to indigenous communities.

About the Kwahu project

The project is located in the greater Kwahu landscape in Ghana’s Eastern Region where there is a highland and lowland forest system that borders the Volta Lake. The project will regenerate an estimated 100,000 hectares of degraded lands, restore the landscape’s biodiversity and transform it into an economically-productive ecosystem for the local indigenous population.

This will additionally create new income opportunities for the local indigenous communities through agroforestry practices training and job creation, and empower 22,000 members of the local community with the opportunity to actively participate in the farming system and improve their livelihoods.

Due to commence by Q4 2023, Phase 1 of the project will focus on restoring deforested cocoa lands, degraded forest reserves, and rewilding off-reserve forests across the landscape. This will be followed by Phase 2 in 2027 which will focus on regenerating native tree species across degraded forests at the Kwahu Afram Plains. The project seeks to apply new methodologies under Verra and align with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.

Ethiopia Southwest Afromontane AUDD project

This project is focused on the remaining Afromontane high forests of the southwestern portion of Ethiopia including areas of Gambela and Southwest Peoples’ regional states. The project aims to avoid unplanned deforestation and forest degradation across an area of approximately 750,000 ha. These forests are the genetic origin of coffee arabica and host significant productive coffee agroforestry systems.

Ethiopia Sidaama Coffee Restoration ARR project

This project is focused on high value niche coffee landscape of Sidaama Regional State in southcentral Ethiopia. The project aims to restore coffee farming systems to return high carbon, high biodiversity shade regimes across 100,000 ha through ARR interventions. The area holds rich biodiversity and high number of endemic and endangered species. This project provides a clear path towards a guaranteed no deforestation coffee harvest that will meet evolving international no deforestation market access regulations.

Malawi Lake Chilwa Wetlands Restoration ARR & Teal project

This project is focused on the greater Lake Chilwa wetlands and plains of the Southern Province of Malawi. The project aims to use ARR and Teal carbon interventions across an area of approximately 200,000 ha. This project will be the first Teal carbon project in Africa.

John J. Mason is a Founder and co-CEO of AJA Climate Solutions and the Chief Executive Officer of the Nature Conservation Research Centre (NCRC). Born and raised in Nigeria, John has been based in Ghana for 35+ years and is one of the leading voices for local community participation in conservation initiatives in West Africa. John is an expert speaker and instructor on the impact of climate change across Africa. He was one of the first people to draw attention to the threat climate change poses to the economically crucial cocoa sector across Africa.

John catalysed cutting-edge agriculture carbon initiatives from Liberia to Ethiopia, led the preparation of the Bale Mountains Eco-region design in Ethiopia, and pioneered the development of the highly successful Community Resource Management Areas (CREMA) model, which is being adapted to address the challenges of delivering community benefits under nature-based carbon initiatives across Africa. John has worked with communities, traditional leadership, governments, civil society and private sector in Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia to develop locally owned and managed conservation initiatives.

Since 2007, John has been member of the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.John also serves as a faculty member of both the Kinship Conservation Fellowship Program and African Leadership University School of Wildlife Conservation.

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Rebecca Ashley Asare (PhD) is a Founder and Director at AJA and is NCRC’s Director of Programs and Research in Accra, Ghana. She is a regional expert on Climate Smart Agriculture and leads efforts to develop climate change mitigation projects, formulate the enabling policy environment for carbon projects and support African governments to build the capacity, tools, and strategy for carbon projects. She has extensive experience in forest and agricultural carbon feasibility assessments, including studies of land use and land use change, carbon stock measurement, and identification of appropriate activities.

Rebecca holds a Ph.D. in Social Ecology from Yale University. She specializes in tree crop systems, agroforestry and community based natural resource management. Her doctoral research focused on the cocoa farming system in Ghana, with a particular focus on un the main factors driving cocoa farmer’s decision processes and practices in shade management. Rebecca has lived and worked in Africa for over 20 years as a scientist and a conservation and development practitioner. Previously she has worked with Forest Trends, the World Agroforestry Center, the WWF-WARPO office, and as a rural water specialist with the U.S. Peace Corps.

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Tadesse Woldemariam (PhD) is Founder and Executive Director of Environment and Coffee Forest Forum in Addis Ababa. He is a leading Ethiopian NBS expert with 26+ years’ experience as practitioner, researcher and educator in biodiversity, conservation, natural resources management, climate change, carbon finance, and participatory conservation planning. Dr. Tadesse has extensive experience in project design and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and capacity building in partnership with different stakeholders.

He has expertise in NBS in the Horn of Africa/East Africa and served as a consultant for multiple international bodies, including the World Bank, United Nations Development Program, and Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation. He is a long-term collaborator with NCRC and has published over 60 articles, including in the journals Nature and PLOSOne. Tadesse also served as Associate Editor of 2 scientific journals and completed over 65 major consultancy assignments.

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Alan Hodges is a Founder and co-CEO of AJA. Born and raised in Nigeria, Alan has extensive experience working across geographies and cultures. He is a seasoned and highly skilled executive with deep roots and relationships in Asia, and a proven track record of building successful businesses from scratch as well as launching global brands across the Asia Pacific region. Most recently, Alan was Asia Pacific Managing Director for the leading American media company, A+ E Networks, which includes the History Channel, Lifetime and A&E Channel.

Alan’s passionate commitment to rewilding and conservation brought him into nature-based carbon projects and ecotourism. He is a qualified safari guide and apprentice trails guide under the Field Guides of South Africa (FGASA). He has a master’s degree in international relations and economics from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington DC, and a master’s and bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada.

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Greg Tanner is a Founder and Director of AJA Climate Solutions. Although based in Singapore over the last 2 decades, he has lived in the USA, Europe and Asia, and travelled extensively around the world.

Greg is legally qualified in New York, England and Wales and France, and has practiced at two of the world’s largest law firms (White & Case and Clifford Chance) with stints in London, Luxemburg, New York, Singapore, Jakarta and Paris. Greg subsequently headed the Legal Departments in Asia Pacific for Informix Software, and DHL Worldwide Express, respectively, and spent the last 13 years as Group General Counsel of International SOS in Singapore.

In addition to general legal work, M&As, contracts, compliance, litigation, data protection and assurance, insurance, corporate secretarial, internal security and other legal and risk management related matters, Greg has driven the ESG and Sustainability agendas at his respective employers, as he is passionate about giving back to society and making the world a better place and protecting the environment for the long-term benefit of his and all other children.

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Deepali Gohil is an interdisciplinary scientist and entrepreneur with a passion for regenerating landscapes. She connects research and enterprise to indigenous systems that rehabilitate soils, promote food security, enhance biodiversity and create resilience to climate change. Deepali has worked in the conservation space in East Africa, establishing land-use monitoring and management systems and livelihood development programs within the community-based-conservation space. Deepali has established impact mapping and measurement systems across a range of non-profit and humanitarian organizations to provide high-quality real-time trends and analysis to inform data-driven decision making.

She has been intricately involved in linking these to MRV systems for carbon projects. She is pioneering research using longitudinal studies on carbon-related socio-economics and governance systems. Deepali has also been responsible for coordinating field and office teams to collect, manage, analyze, interpret, communicate and use ecological and socio-economic information for decision making. She has also worked across the EAC building capacity on REDD+.

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