
Soil carbon evidence synthesis for a global confectionery company
Structured review of the published evidence on soil carbon dynamics in cocoa systems to inform a multinational's sustainability roadmap.







ENGINEERING•CONSULTING•RESEARCH
Ekodama is an independent scientific consulting practice focused on soils, soil health, soil carbon, agroforestry, and sustainable land systems. We help clients design robust approaches, generate credible evidence, and translate complex land-system questions into usable decisions.
Why Ekodama•Approach
We combine field experience, research-grade methods, and visual-analytical craft to bridge complex science and real-world implementation.
Sometimes we deliver a project directly at our scale; sometimes we step in as a specialist scientific advisor to a larger program your team is already running with another service provider. Either way (whether you're designing a rigorous field experiment, establishing a soil carbon baseline, or trying to understand how a complex land system actually behaves)our role is to make the science sound, usable, and grounded in your situation.
Services•Seven practice areas
Combining field research, analytical methods, and strategic consulting, delivered directly at our scale or as a specialist scientific advisor on a larger program your team is running.
We help design and interpret soil health evaluations, from comprehensive studies to focused assessments, combining field, laboratory, and research-grade methods. We can deliver this at our scale, or act as scientific advisor to a larger program your team is running.
We support credible soil carbon baselines and tree or plant biomass estimation, aligned with the GHG Protocol Land Use Removals guidance and with the practical reality of supplier programs. We also review existing or planned sampling campaigns — soil or tree — to assess whether the design, depth, bulk density, and uncertainty approach meet the requirements of carbon accounting, not agronomic monitoring alone.
We build farm-system models, short-term or long-term, that crystallize how different management choices translate into emissions, removals, yields, and system trade-offs.
Recent projects•Selected work
A representative view of recent work with major agri-food companies and scientific institutions.

Structured review of the published evidence on soil carbon dynamics in cocoa systems to inform a multinational's sustainability roadmap.

Integrated assessment of soil health, carbon stocks, and agronomic performance across a large commercial cocoa plantation in Colombia.

Custom quantitative tool built to help programme managers evaluate practice changes, soil carbon outcomes, and farmer-level economics.

Design and implementation of a rigorous on-farm experimental protocol for an integrated cocoa-and-fruit system in Brazil.

Development of a defensible measurement, reporting and verification protocol for a private agronomic research centre.

An interactive cartography of soil science — 10 zones, ~85 disciplines, and 8 cross-cutting themes. Pannable, zoomable, bilingual.
Practical lessons and other insightful reflections.

Soil management designed for yesterday's climate will underperform under tomorrow's. The adaptation response across four agricultural contexts, from tropical cocoa agroforestry to European arable systems, and why soil organic matter is both the most important lever and the hardest to maintain under warming.

Biochar's global yield average sits at ~10–13%, but the average hides the answer: large gains on acidic tropical soils, near zero on temperate silts, sometimes negative. A decision framework for matching feedstock and pyrolysis to the soil and crop in front of you.

Biochar is one of the rare carbon removals with a clear definition and a tradable claim. What the H/Corg ratio tells you about permanence, and how the 2026 standards (Verra VM0044, EU CRCF, EBC, Puro) split the credit across biomass owner, pyrolysis operator, farmer, and buyer.
Work with us
Interested in collaborating on soil carbon research, agroforestry consulting, or scientific communication projects? Tell us about your project and we will come back to you with a clear, honest first response.