DAI Labs Selected by Carbon Ventures Africa to Pioneer High-Precision Biomass Analytics
A Major Milestone in High-Integrity Carbon Accounting
DAI Labs is proud to announce our selection by Carbon Ventures Africa to provide the core biomass mapping and data analytics for the Miombo Renewal project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Miombo Renewal project works alongside local communities and aims to restore over 200,000 hectares of degraded miombo woodlands in southern DR Congo, removing over 40 million metric tonnes of CO₂ over 50 years.
This work directly supports project certification by Isometric—the first certifier of carbon removal approved by ICVCM, CORSIA, and ICROA, and widely recognized for setting the market’s highest bar for scientific dMRV (Digital Measurement, Reporting, and Verification). Being selected to supply data for a project undergoing Isometric certification is a major milestone for DAI Labs, and an opportunity to prove our analytics can meet the most demanding audit standards in the market.
The Tech Edge: Why Pure Satellite Imagery Falls Short
Traditionally, measuring AGB has involved sending survey teams into the field to physically measure trees across sample plots. This ground-based approach requires significant time and labor, which can make it costly and difficult to cover large areas.
To solve the challenge of covering large areas without extensive fieldwork, many dMRV providers rely on satellite imagery alone. While combining satellite imagery with AI is common, conventional satellite-based approaches often fail: spaceborne LiDAR (like GEDI) lacks wall-to-wall spatial continuity and systematically underestimates high-biomass forests, while optical and SAR sensors are susceptible to seasonal variations and dense canopy distortion. In complex ecosystems like tropical forests, uncalibrated satellite maps suffer from significant error margins and broad uncertainty—creating liabilities for project developers and registries alike.
DAI Labs solves this through ground-calibrated AI modeling. By fusing high-resolution satellite imagery directly with physical, ground-collected field samples, our pipeline:
- Slashes Biomass Estimation Errors:
Compared to conventional approaches relying solely on satellite data, calibrating our models with field survey data significantly reduces prediction error. By calibrating satellite imagery against real world plot data, we correct for dense canopy distortion and reduce regional biases. We tested this approach on a comparable Miombo woodland project in Malawi, where field calibration reduced biomass measurement error by up to 68% in some cases (from 48.92 Mg/ha RMSE to 15.51 Mg/ha), outperforming standard uncalibrated models and global products like ESA CCI Biomass.
Reducing this error increases confidence in the project’s carbon accounting and can also allow validation agencies to issue more carbon credits, potentially on the order of 10 to 20% more over the life of the project. - Bounds Uncertainty: Delivers statistically rigorous, auditable confidence intervals required by independent Validation and Verification Bodies (VVBs).
- Powers Dynamic Baselines: Maps surrounding “donor zones” to establish transparent regional performance benchmarks over time.
Setting the Benchmark for Global Registries
Applying our field-calibrated model in the challenging terrain of the DRC under Isometric’s rigorous framework is an opportunity to demonstrate what modern dMRV should look like. DAI Labs is now actively expanding work with project developers and leading carbon registries to bring this high-precision data pipeline to forest restoration projects worldwide.
Are you a project developer or registry provider looking to reduce biomass uncertainty and streamline VVB audits? Reach out to DAI Labs to explore our dMRV analytics platform.
About Isometric
Isometric certifies industrial claims that customers, investors, and regulators rely on but can’t check for themselves. Its AI-powered platform, Certify, works alongside independent verifiers to review every data point behind a claim, not just a sample, doing in hours what used to take months. Every certificate is published on Isometric’s public Registry alongside the underlying data, calculations, and evidence.
Isometric started in carbon removal, where it has been contracted to certify over 16 million tonnes, more than any other certifier in the world. It has since expanded across industrial emissions, energy, fuels, and materials. Microsoft, Anglo American, Boeing, JPMorgan Chase, and more than 200 projects worldwide trust Isometric. It is approved by ICVCM, CORSIA, and ICROA. For more information, visit isometric.com.
About Carbon Ventures Africa
Carbon Ventures Africa partners with local communities across the continent to restore native forests on deforested and degraded land. Working alongside local communities, technical specialists, NGOs and international partners, CVA creates lasting environmental and social impact. CVA’s mission is ambitious yet achievable: restoring more than 500,000 hectares of forest – over three times the size of Greater London – over the next 10 years, removing over 100 million tonnes of CO₂e by 2050.
