Google announced a long-term agreement with Thryve.Earth to purchase 260,000 tons of carbon removal from an agroforestry project in Sulawesi, Indonesia, marking the first agroforestry initiative included in Google’s carbon removal portfolio. The deal is structured through the Symbiosis Coalition, a collaborative platform that helps climate buyers support nature-based carbon projects.
Thryve.Earth’s project focuses on restoring heavily degraded land that is currently dominated by fire-prone, invasive grasses. The restoration approach replaces these grasses with a multilayered agroforestry system that blends an upper canopy of sugar palm and timber trees, a mid-layer of crops such as avocado and coffee, and ground-level annual crops including chili and corn. This design aims to remove carbon, improve soil health, increase biodiversity, and support local farmers with diversified income streams.
By integrating agroforestry into its carbon removal strategy, Google is expanding beyond engineered solutions like direct air capture to nature-based approaches that can be deployed at scale. The company frames the agreement as part of its broader effort to use AI and data to evaluate and support high-integrity carbon projects that deliver both climate and community benefits.
The partnership also highlights the growing role of scientifically designed agroforestry in climate resilience, as Thryve.Earth develops site-specific, layered farming systems intended to withstand extreme weather and regenerate ecosystems over time. As the project matures, data from the Sulawesi landscape is expected to inform future nature-based carbon removal efforts in other regions.
