For around $15, companies can offset a metric ton of their carbon emissions by buying a credit from Wildlife Works, a conservation organization in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It uses the money to stop slash-and-burn farmers from chopping down the world’s second largest rainforest, the Congo, by helping them transition to more sustainable forms of agriculture and other economic activities. The $15 per credit—a price set by a U.N.-backed carbon market—is better than many similar programs, says Wildlife Works’ DRC director JR Bwangoy-Bankanza. “But it’s not enough,” he says. “For people to protect the forest, they need more income, and we need a [bigger] funding stream.”

Bwangoy-Bankanza is hopeful that a new alliance betwee…