Ecosystem Service Market—Carbon
With all the talk about climate change, many often overlook the role that forests play in reducing greenhouse gases. Carbon that is emitted by a power plant or a vehicle is taken up by trees and turns into the strong wood trunks we associate with our trees. Nationwide, US forests sequester, or store, 10% of US greenhouse gas emissions. Without our trees serving as the planet’s lungs, we’d be far worse off.
With that in mind, a few years ago people starting thinking, "those trees that store all that carbon are providing an environmental service." The development of
carbon offset projects creates a market where landowners who can demonstrate increased carbon sequestration on their properties are eligible to sell those carbon credits to a voluntary buyer. Those credits are often sold as "offsets," which means they are offsetting someone else’s emission, making the action carbon-neutral.
AFF has developed a few carbon offset projects, making sure woodland landowners are eligible for participation.
Project Highlight: American Forest Foundation Carbon Offset Project As the leading voice for family woodland owners in the United States, the American Forest Foundation has a vested interest in ensuring small woodland owners are eligible to participate in any carbon market. To explore the possibility, AFF established two pilot projects for carbon sequestration. The two projects are in different regions (upstate New York and rural Oregon) and were developed within their specific political, social, economic and ecological context. What works for small woodland owners in New York may not work for Oregon. However, both project models aggregate small woodland parcels for trading.
Most North American family forest owners with average-sized tracts do not find it economically feasible to enroll their properties in carbon offset trading programs, should they be eligible to do so. Initial costs, such as measuring how much carbon is currently stored in your woods, will more than likely far outreach the final returns woodland owners may see. One means of ensuring small woodland properties participate is aggregating these smaller properties into tradable "portfolios."
Currently, carbon is trading at less than $1/ton on the voluntary market. That’s not a very promising market for small woodland owners. However, if climate change legislation is passed and carbon markets become mandated, then the price of carbon is expected to increase up to $15/ton. That’s why we want to have a good model developed now, so that woodland owners can be set to participate if and when a carbon market becomes compulsory. For more information on our efforts on climate change legislation, please check out our
policy platform.
To find out more about the carbon aggregation program in New York, check out
CarbonTree, LLC. To learn more about our carbon aggregation program in Oregon, check out
Woodlands Carbon Company.
Additional Information on Carbon Markets - Forest Trends conducted an analysis of carbon markets in their 2009 State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets. The analysis includes price trends, project types, locations, and policy comparisons.
- The Northern Forest Center, Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, and Coastal Enterprises, Inc. developed a comprehensive guide, Payment for Forest Carbon, which discusses current opportunities and challenges for small woodland owners.
- The Nature Conservancy has multiple forest carbon projects around the globe. Each particular forest type differs, making the projects diverse in scope and scale.
- Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences developed a Forest Carbon Scorecard to help woodland owners and foresters determine the technical rigor required for any given forest carbon project.
