The most durable carbon removal is often the simplest. For Tivano Carbon, a Swiss startup, that means digging a hole, filling it with wood, and sealing it shut. The wood in question is invasive encroacher bush, a plague on Namibia's savannas that chokes out grasslands and locks away water. For decades, the standard fix has been to poison or burn it, releasing the captured carbon back into the air. Tivano's alternative is to treat the biomass not as waste, but as a resource for permanent storage. They call it a carbon vault, and they have just issued their first certificates to prove it works [Biochar Today, 2025].
A wedge in the Namibian bush
Tivano's bet is that the problem of invasive woody biomass in semi-arid regions can be turned into a climate solution. The company's Dragonfly project in Namibia is its first operational vault, where harvested bush is buried in engineered underground chambers designed to prevent decomposition for centuries [Tivano Carbon, 2026]. This approach, known as terrestrial biomass storage, aims to generate high-durability carbon removal credits, or CORCs, each representing one tonne of CO₂ permanently removed [The 5 Best Puro.earth Carbon Credit Removal Projects of 2026, 2026]. For land managers, it offers a revenue stream from a costly cleanup operation. For the carbon market, it offers a form of removal that is arguably more straightforward and verifiable than many high-tech alternatives.
The unit economics of burial
For any carbon removal method, the long-term math boils down to cost per tonne, durability, and verification. Tivano's model appears to lean on existing land management operations and relatively low-tech engineering. The primary costs are likely harvesting, transport, and the burial operation itself. While the company has not disclosed its cost per tonne, the structure suggests a potential advantage in regions where bush clearing is already a necessity. The value proposition to buyers hinges on the durability claim. By physically isolating biomass underground in monitored vaults, Tivano argues it can guarantee storage for hundreds of years, a key differentiator in a market wary of impermanent offsets [Tivano Carbon, 2026].
The path to scale
Issuing the first certificates from the Dragonfly project is a critical proof point, moving Tivano from concept to a commercial carbon removal supplier [Carbon Herald, 2025]. The next steps are about replication and validation. The company must demonstrate it can deploy similar vaults across other regions facing bush encroachment, which extends across large parts of southern Africa. Scaling will require navigating local partnerships, securing land rights, and building out the monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) protocols to satisfy credit buyers. The model's scalability is intrinsically linked to the geographic extent of the biomass problem it solves.
Where the model faces pressure
No climate solution operates in a vacuum, and Tivano's vaults compete for both land and capital. The risks are not trivial.
- Land use competition. The same cleared land could potentially be used for agriculture, renewable energy projects, or other forms of carbon sequestration like reforestation. Tivano's value must outweigh these alternative uses for local stakeholders.
- Credit market volatility. The entire business model depends on the price and demand for carbon removal credits, a market that remains nascent and subject to regulatory shifts and buyer sentiment.
- The durability debate. While burial may prevent decomposition, the long-term geological stability of the vaults and the certainty of "permanent" removal will be scrutinized by standards bodies and buyers. Any perceived risk of future disturbance or methane production could undermine the credit's premium.
The company's early validation from investors like VP Capital and its inclusion in accelerator programs suggests backers see a path through these challenges [VP Capital, 2024]. But the real test will be a multi-vault deployment that proves consistent economics.
For a back-of-the-envelope sense of the potential, consider the scale of the problem. Namibia has an estimated 30 million hectares affected by bush encroachment. If even a fraction of that biomass were harvested and stored, the gigatonne-scale carbon removal potential is theoretically significant. The practical limit, of course, is the cost and logistics of the operation. Tivano's ultimate competition isn't just other carbon removal startups. It's the incumbent practice of doing nothing, or the cheaper, carbon-emitting alternative of controlled burning. To win, they must prove that turning a landscape crisis into a climate asset is not just possible, but financially compelling for everyone involved.
Sources
- [Biochar Today, 2025] Tivano Issues CO2 Removal Certificates for Africa's Bush Crisis | https://biochartoday.com/news/tivano-issues-first-carbon-dioxide-removal-certificates-via-namibian-terrestrial-biomass-storage-operation/
- [Tivano Carbon, 2026] Approach | Tivano Carbon | https://www.tivano-carbon.com/
- [The 5 Best Puro.earth Carbon Credit Removal Projects of 2026, 2026] The 5 Best Puro.earth Carbon Credit Removal Projects of 2026 | https://www.regreener.earth/blog/best-puro-earth-carbon-credit-removal-projects
- [Carbon Herald, 2025] Tivano Issues Its First CORCs From Terrestrial Biomass Storage In Africa | https://carbonherald.com/tivano-issues-its-first-corcs-from-terrestrial-biomass-storage-in-africa/
- [VP Capital, 2024] VP Capital | Our 2024 climate contribution: three projects that reflect our strategy | https://vpcapital.eu/news/news/our-2024-climate-contribution-three-projects-that-reflect-our-strategy