Forests Carbon Credits: New Funds for Conservation
Protect Forests. Offset Carbon Dioxide Emissions Verifiably and Cost-Effectively. Achieving Multiple Environmental Benefits.

Companies seeking to offset carbon dioxide emissions have a unique opportunity to accomplish their goal by conserving forests for their climate benefits in partnership with the Pacific Forest Trust. PFT's forest climate program can provide carbon producers with high quality, long-term carbon offsets – and society with a practical approach to reducing the threat of global warming through forest conservation and stewardship.

The Pacific Forest Trust represents landowners who have forest-based carbon credits from a growing portfolio of private forestlands in the Pacific Northwest. These forests have been documented by the U.S. National Research Council as the best carbon sinks in the world. In addition to sales of its banked credits, our program also facilitates the sale of forest carbon credits from other conserved forestlands in the region.

All of PFT's carbon credits are secured by permanent conservation easements owned and managed by PFT. These conservation easements ensure the forests will not be cleared or converted to other uses, and ensure that only forest management that enhances carbon stocks will occur on these properties. In this way, carbon gains made today will not be lost tomorrow.

Carbon producers – whether power companies, other businesses or individuals – can work with PFT to purchase forest carbon credits. Such purchases help pay for the acquisition and management of conservation easements. In return, buyers receive low cost, permanent and scientifically verifiable credits for the additional carbon stored. Such purchases also help protect and restore some of the world¹s most ecologically bountiful forests. Green Mountain Energy Company, for instance, is one such company that has purchased PFT's carbon credits generated from permanently conserved Caifornia forestlands.

With on-site visits and remote sensing technology, the Pacific Forest Trust monitors, verifies and reports forest carbon gains. PFT also uses its state-of-the-art forest carbon model to project carbon stores under different forest management scenarios. This computer model was developed for Pacific Northwest forests by PFT and Dr. Mark Harmon of the USFS Forestry Sciences Laboratory and Oregon State University.

Stewardship forestry, which is practiced on lands protected by PFT's easements, maximizes a forest's natural carbon-sequestering capacity. Because the forest grows older and more complex, stewardship forestry can more than double carbon stores compared to results from conventional forest practices. The resulting forests, with large snags, rich understories and coarse woody debris, also provide better fish and wildlife habitat, watershed protection and increased biodiversity.

There are social benefits, too: Under the terms of PFT easements, sustainable logging and other traditional uses continue on protected private forestlands, providing economic benefits and contributing to the stability of forest-based communities.

This new market is at an early stage. The international and domestic policy framework for reduction of greenhouse gases is still evolving, so there are no guarantees that governments will recognize forest carbon projects as an acceptable form of mitigation. However, PFT believes the carbon offsets we offer thave been designed to meet developing standards, including those established by the California Climate Action Registry.

If you have questions about PFT's forest climate program, please contact Michelle Passero at mpassero@pacificforest.org.