At their farm Horaholm, in the northern Dutch village of Hornhuizen, Erwin Westers and his father have spent over 20 years exploring how to work with nature instead of against it. Their efforts show how farming can heal both the land and the climate. By restoring soil life, inviting biodiversity back, and capturing 5,273 tons of CO₂, their regenerative farm has become a powerful example of what’s possible. The impact is clear: Dutch Company Euro Support, eager to support climate solutions, purchased €100,000 in ONCRA-certified carbon credits. Erwin shared half of this revenue with six fellow farmers and now co-mentors them in their own regenerative journeys, creating a ripple effect of trust, fairness, and climate-positive change.
A Community for Systemic Change
Erwin’s pioneering journey and the sale of his credits are now directly helping six other farmers build their own regenerative farms. “I’ve made many mistakes over the years. That’s how I learned,” Erwin explains. “If others can skip some of that struggle because of what I’ve figured out, then that’s what I want to make possible.” Thanks to this support, regenerative practices are expanding across a combined 681 hectares of land and are expected to store an additional 552 tons of CO₂ in the coming year.
Participating farmers receiving training and peer support is part of a broader ecosystem of collaboration by the Regenerative Alliance, which includes Horaholm, Scature, Bij de Oorsprong and SoilBeat, among others. This network approach ensures that knowledge and best practices spread throughout the farming community.
“Times are changing: traditional measures no longer have the right impact, which is why we need to change the system,” explains Gillis Klompe, one of the participating farmers. “It’s very different from conventional farming, but it works.”
Local, Tangible and Real Impact
Regenerative agriculture requires patience, as the early years are often uncertain, costly, and rarely profitable. That’s why early support from companies like Euro Support make such a crucial difference. The investment provides farmers with the financial foundation needed to transition away from conventional practices toward methods that restore ecosystem health.
Koos Dirksen from Euro Support highlights the motivations behind their investment, and it wasn’t about a simple transaction. “We weren’t initially looking for carbon credits. We stumbled upon this project and were very impressed. It’s local, it’s tangible, and it supports real change. Not only for the climate, but also for food, water, and soil. We didn’t want to just neutralise emissions on paper. We wanted to contribute to something that actually works.”
The transparency and trust-based approach of the ONCRA platform particularly appealed to the company, with all data made publicly available and calculations conducted conservatively without hidden systems.
Oncra: A Model Built on Transparency
The foundation of the ONCRA model is trust, a principle that both the farmer and the platform’s co-founder agree is key to its success.
Erwin explains: “It’s all built on trust, which is rare in this market and in society in general. Everything is open source, so everyone can see what’s happening. Normally, you have all sorts of rules, but we didn’t need them here. That comes with a lot of responsibility, but it means more of the revenue can go directly to the farmer.”
This philosophy is echoed by Bart van Beuzekom, advisor to ONCRA and co-founder of Scature: “What makes this model different is that it starts from trust. That means you can work with real people, not just large-scale operations. You still need evidence of course, and that’s all available. But we don’t design for the 10% that might misuse the system. We design for the 90% that want to do the right thing.”
This approach enables smaller players, like individual farmers, to participate without being overwhelmed by certification bureaucracy, creating pathways for genuine regenerative practices to scale across agricultural communities.
A Blueprint for the Future
Erwin’s decision to invest in others rather than maximise personal profit sends a powerful message about how sustainable transitions happen: through relationships, trust, and community support rather than purely through policy or market mechanisms alone.
By recognising the value of regenerative agriculture and rewarding the farmers who create it, this partnership offers a new kind of return: not just carbon removal, but long-term agricultural and environmental resilience. Erwin’s success in building a regenerative farm has created the proper support for others. This means new farmers don’t have to start from scratch, creating a multiplier effect that can transform entire agricultural regions while delivering measurable climate benefits.