Welcome to CarbonTree!
Forests provide many ecological benefits to society that does not result in an economic
return for the landowner. The list includes clean water, clean air, aesthetic beauty,
habitat for wildlife, and protection of threatened or endangered plants. One item
the list may no longer include is removal of atmospheric carbon. The Empire State
Forest Products Association and the American Forest Foundation have partnered to
form CarbonTree, LLC to aggregate and trade sequestered carbon credits from managed
forest lands.
Burning fossil fuel releases carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, which is
generally acknowledged as contributing to global warming. The unique role of oil
as the main source of transportation fuel makes reducing CO2 emissions a difficult
problem; in theory we can neutralize CO2 emissions by techniques such as carbon
sequestration. Carbon sequestration is the storage of carbon dioxide captured from
the atmosphere in a solid material through biological or physical processes.
Forests are carbon stores, and they are CO2 sinks when they are increasing in density
or area. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that "a
sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest
carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber fibre or energy
from the forest, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit." IPCC is
a scientific intergovernmental body tasked to evaluate the risk of climate change
caused by human activity.
At this time the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) is the only market that recognizes
and has protocols in place to trade carbon credits from sustainable forestry offset
projects. CCX is a voluntary market and although the current market price is down,
a recent sale brought forest owners in Michigan more than $8 per acre.
In order to assure credibility and demonstrate carbon sequestration is taking place,
the inventory and reporting standards are high. Each pool of landowners is also
required to undergo an annual verification audit. Participants agree to enroll all
eligible properties and keep those lands under management and certification (Tree
Farm) for 15 years.
CarbonTree is currently in the process of recruiting eligible forests to pool into
an offset project. This pilot program is not for everyone, and we will restrict
the pool to projects that have the best opportunity of success. For more information,
contact CarbonTree and Mike Burns at The New York Forestry Resource Center, 47 Van
Alstyne Drive, Rensselaer, NY 12144 or mburns@esfpa.org |
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