Rai Matak ("Green Land") is a 50-year national reforestation initiative working with Timorese farmers to plant 10 million trees, support 20,000 farming families, and sequester 25 million tonnes of carbon. It builds on the success of WithOneSeed, a pioneering community-led climate program launched in 2009 in Baguia with seed funding from PMF Foundation.

WithOneSeed introduced a simple yet powerful model: empower smallholder farmers to plant and care for native and naturalised trees on their own land and reward them annually based on tree survival. Through rigorous monitoring, tree tagging, and external auditing, the program achieved Gold Standard certification in 2016—becoming Timor-Leste’s first internationally certified carbon farming initiative. The revenue generated from the sale of carbon credits has since enabled WithOneSeed to become financially self-sustaining, doubling many farmers’ incomes while restoring degraded landscapes.

Rai Matak represents the national scale-up of this proven approach—taking the core principles of WithOneSeed and embedding them in a broader, systems-based framework. It places verified carbon income in the hands of rural farmers and supports Timorese-led organisations to manage governance, certification, and operations at scale. PMF Foundation is once again providing crucial seed funding during this formative stage, ensuring that the systems, training, and institutions are in place to scale impact and sustain farmer livelihoods over the long term.

More information:
🌱 www.raimatak.org
🌳 www.withoneseed.org.au

🎬 Learn more: https://youtu.be/CKcFKKPN9HY