Scaling Grassland Restoration through Ranching in Northern Mexico 

Regenerative Grazing as a Climate and Community Solution

Across the arid grasslands of northern Mexico, ranching has shaped landscapes and livelihoods for generations. These rangelands support families, local economies, and cultural traditions that are deeply tied to the land. But increasing drought, land degradation, and desertification have placed growing strain on both ecosystems and the people who depend on them.

In response, ranchers across northern Mexico are turning to regenerative grazing practices as a way to restore degraded grasslands, strengthen resilience to climate stress, and secure new sources of income. Through a large-scale collaboration with Boomitra, a global soil carbon project developer, these land stewards are demonstrating how improved agricultural land management has global implications and can deliver meaningful climate impact while supporting rural communities.

A Landscape-Scale Effort Rooted in Local Stewardship

The Boomitra Grassland Restoration in Northern Mexico project brings together 158 ranching communities across approximately four million acres of grasslands spanning the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts. The project includes both privately owned ranches and ejidos, community-owned lands managed collectively by local families, reflecting the diverse land tenure systems that define the region.

By working across this mosaic of ownership and management structures, the project shows how improved land management can be scaled inclusively, reaching land stewards who have historically had limited access to climate finance.

At the core of the project is regenerative grazing. Ranchers adopt planned, rotational grazing systems that give grasslands extended recovery time between grazing periods. These changes allow vegetation to regrow more fully, strengthen root systems, improve soil structure, and increase the land’s ability to retain water.

For many ranchers, these practices represent a fundamental shift in how land is managed, with benefits that extend well beyond carbon.

Restoring Land, Biodiversity, and Resilience

On ranches participating in the project, the impacts of regenerative grazing are visible on the ground. Degraded pastures are recovering. Plant diversity is increasing. Soils are becoming healthier and more resilient.

At El Apache Ranch, where rancher Jorge Pando works alongside his father, rotational grazing has transformed the landscape. By dividing grazing areas into smaller paddocks and carefully managing rest periods, the land has been given the time it needs to recover.

These changes support a range of co-benefits, including improved habitat for wildlife, reduced erosion, and greater resilience to drought. Healthier soils also improve long-term productivity, helping ranchers sustain their operations in increasingly challenging climate conditions.

Putting Communities First

A defining feature of the project is its community-centered financial model. Revenues generated from carbon credits flow primarily to participating ranchers and communities, providing a new income stream that complements traditional agricultural production.

By ensuring that the majority of revenue goes directly to land stewards, the project helps address long-standing barriers that have prevented many small and medium-scale producers from participating in carbon markets. This is especially significant for ejidos, where collective land management and shared benefits are central to community well-being.

Carbon finance enables ranchers to continue investing in long-term land restoration, even in regions where margins are thin and climate risks are rising. In doing so, the project links climate outcomes directly to local livelihoods and rural development.

Demonstrating Global Scale and Impact

In early 2026, the project reached a historic milestone with the approval of more than three million soil carbon credits. When fully issued, this will represent the largest soil carbon issuance to date. The credits reflect net emission reductions and carbon dioxide removals achieved through improved grazing and land management practices over multiple years.

This milestone underscores the ability of improved agricultural land management to scale across large, complex landscapes while delivering verified climate outcomes. It also signals growing confidence from carbon market participants, including buyers who have committed to long-term offtake agreements that provide demand certainty and financial stability for the project.

By spanning international borders and involving diverse landholders, the project demonstrates that VM0042-based approaches are not limited to a single geography or farming system. Instead, they offer a flexible framework that can be adapted to local contexts around the world.

Improved Agricultural Land Management at Work

The project is registered under Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard Program and applies the Improved Agricultural Land Management methodology to quantify and verify climate outcomes from regenerative practices.

At its core, the methodology provides a structured, science-based framework for linking changes in land management to measurable climate benefits. It is designed to be adaptable across different agricultural systems while maintaining conservative accounting, transparency, and independent verification.

By focusing on improved practices, the methodology supports innovation on the ground and allows land stewards to choose approaches that make sense for their landscapes, operations, and communities.

A Model for the Future of Agricultural Climate Solutions

Boomitra’s grassland restoration work in northern Mexico illustrates how improved agricultural land management can deliver climate impact at scale while generating meaningful benefits for people and ecosystems.

The project shows that:

• Regenerative practices can restore degraded land and strengthen resilience
• Carbon finance can reach diverse farming and ranching communities
• Improved land management can deliver verified climate outcomes across millions of acres
• Agricultural climate solutions can support livelihoods, biodiversity, and long-term stewardship

As interest in high-integrity nature-based solutions continues to grow, projects like this highlight the global potential of improved agricultural land management to support farmers and ranchers as partners in climate action.

Verra Perspective

Projects like this demonstrate how implementing targeted farming practices can deliver measurable climate benefits at scale. Verra’s role is to ensure these outcomes are grounded in rigorous science, conservative accounting, and independent verification, so the land, communities, and the climate all benefit.”

Mandy Rambharos

CEO