Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Winter 12-10-2023

Abstract

Many forest landowners are interested in managing their forests for carbon benefits, yet few are able to do so without considering the financial consequences. To address this need, there are emerging opportunities for landowners to be compensated for the carbon sequestered and stored by their forests. Options include selling a forest’s carbon benefits in a carbon offset market, as well as with more traditional programs that pay landowners to implement specific carbon beneficial practices that are not based on selling offsets. Because carbon offset markets are novel, complex, and often confusing, most of this article is devoted to explaining how they work.

Carbon offset markets are also subject to ongoing debate. Most of this discussion centers around whether carbon offset markets are achieving their intended goal of climate change mitigation by reducing and stabilizing the levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Therefore, it’s important to distinguish between the financial opportunity that can help landowners keep land forested and subsidize both conservation and forest stewardship efforts, and the less proven value of offsets as tools to directly reduce global emissions.

If none of the current options work for you right now or are not available where you live, keep in mind that new opportunities for being paid for the carbon your forest sequesters and stores are rapidly developing. Any landowner who commits to keeping their forest as forest, manages their forest sustainably, and harvests durable wood products that store carbon and help to reduce our dependency on more carbon-intensive materials, is helping to mitigate climate change regardless of whether they are getting paid directly to do so.

Download

Share

COinS
 

Rights Statement

In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted