How Landowners Help Organizations Achieve Carbon Reduction and Removal Goals
Trees are perhaps the best carbon sequestration tool on the planet, and forest landowners are poised to play a role in reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) levels. By being part of carbon credit development projects, landowners can contribute to environmental solutions, improve the health of their own forestland, and receive a new revenue stream.
Companies worldwide realize the importance of reducing GHG emissions and are working hard to move closer to carbon neutral through improved operations and systems. These current efforts alone are not enough to turn the tide. Programs that reduce or avoid carbon emissions will remain a critical part of achieving carbon reduction goals.
Conserving and growing forests to create high-quality carbon credits are at the heart of achieving GHG reduction goals. Landowners can benefit by understanding forest carbon development, and its environmental impact.
What is Carbon Development?
Carbon Development companies produce projects that:
- Reduce or avoid GHG emissions, or
- Capture carbon dioxide from the air.
NativState focuses on reducing and removing carbon from the atmosphere through conserving forestland through improved forest management.
Carbon Development projects generate carbon credits. Carbon credits represent the reduction or removal of GHG from one place, like a landowner’s forestland, to compensate for emissions someplace else. A carbon credit (or offset, the terms are used interchangeably) is measured as the equivalent of the emission reduction of one metric ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Why buyers purchase carbon credits can vary, but often fall into one of two markets:
- Voluntary carbon market – companies choose to participate in carbon credit programs.
- Compliance market – organizations are compelled to participate due to government regulations.
Types of Carbon Projects
Nature Based Projects
Nature based projects focus on conservation and nature restoration to reduce and avoid carbon emissions. NativState works directly with landowners on forestry development and land use projects. This gives landowners the opportunity to:
- Generate a new source of income from their forests.
- Contribute to offsetting carbon emissions.
- Build a generational land legacy.
- Retain ownership of their land.
- Receive professional forestry resources and planning.
- Optimize their land for enjoyment and carbon sequestration for years to come.
- Realize and alternative to aggressive timber harvesting or land conversion to other non-forest uses.
Avoided Emissions Projects
Reducing the volume of timber harvested in a “business-as-usual” scenario is an example of avoided emissions projects. These projects create credits for GHG that would have been emitted but for the project’s existence.
Carbon Removal Projects
Carbon removal projects pull carbon from the atmosphere. An example of this is planting new trees. Trees act as a carbon sink by storing carbon in their trunks and roots. Also, forests that continue to grow for decades versus being harvested contribute to carbon removals through their incremental growth.
How NativState Contributes
Our land team, foresters, and carbon development team meet with landowners and complete a full assessment of the property’s carbon potential to maximize value while meeting the landowner’s long-term goals for their forest.
- We ensure our projects align with high standards for additionality, permanence, and integrity – essential to marketing and selling high-quality forest carbon credits.
- We work with reputable, independent registries like the American Carbon Registry and Verra to validate and verify each project.
- We market credits from projects to our network of corporate buyers to generate carbon revenue for the landowner.
- We cover the expenses for this plan, its implementation and ongoing management – there is no cost to the landowner.
To speak with NativState about enrolling your land in our forest carbon program, please complete the form here.
