Forest Carbon

In order to avoid the most adverse effects of climate change, we believe reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and their atmospheric concentration should be the pre-imminent concern in conservation. This global imperative aligns with conservation goals to maintain and rebuild the ecosystems on which society depends for clean air, water, wildlife, public health, sustained agricultural yields, and recreation, among many other benefits.

For decades the Institute has sought to maximize its impact by finding solutions for smaller landowners whose collective conservation action would be significant, but for whom adoption can be most challenging. Our work continues to be at the forefront, and sometimes behind the scenes, doing the early thinking, demonstration, and promotion so that ecological forestry can be adopted as a means of climate change mitigation. Over more than a decade the Institute has:

• Demonstrated through models and fieldwork in the Northeast U.S. how carbon projects with smaller landowners might be structured through cooperatives and aggregation (2008).

• Designed a low-cost “practice-based” carbon management approach for a forest carbon incentive program (FCIP) using ecoregional science and public-private partnerships (2010);

• Advised on policy and legislation at the state and federal level, testifying before state committee hearings and participating in state and federal working groups (2010 – present)

• Provided technical assistance to local initiatives and other conservation organizations seeking to develop carbon credit programs for conservation outcomes (2012 – present), 

• Demonstrated ways to lower barriers to entry for small family forests by piloting new forest inventory technology (2016-2019);

• Demonstrated with USDA in the Pacific Northwest how carbon management could be incorporated into existing conservation cost-share programs (2017-2019); 

• Convened policymakers, landowners, and businesses to explore carbon pricing policy options for working lands in Oregon (2018); 

• Analyzed carbon accounting methods to develop more accurate protocols (2018); and, 

• Analyzed forest product markets and infrastructure needed to support the processing of larger logs that would result from extending harvest schedules (2018-2019).

Our past work has taught us that the interests of landowners must align with public policy objectives and economic realities. Carbon markets around the world--and particularly in Europe, but also in California--currently represent the most well-developed of these approaches. Despite these promising trends there remain significant barriers to broader participation from smaller farms and forestland owners.

Environmental challenges of our time require widely supported innovations that are accessible to a diversity of landowners and communities. The Institute is one of the most collaborative and “open-source” organizations working on this challenge. Now, the Institute is building new partnerships to continue innovation in the U.S. Southeast and Puerto Rico--the latter a proving ground for innovations in tropical forests. 

These geographies are home to some of the most naturally productive forests in the world. However, current and historical management practices have left these forests far below their ecological potential. By shifting the way forests are valued and managed, forest types prevalent in these two regions alone could remove hundreds of millions of tons of additional carbon from the atmosphere over the next few vital decades, all while enjoying the host of co-benefits that come from healthy and functioning forest ecosystems.