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		Climate Change Climate Change and Global Warming What's New The Impacts of Climate Change Climate Change and Biodiversity: An Interactive Map What You Can Do:   Carbon Footprint Calculator   Voluntary Carbon   Offset Program   Climate-Saving Tips   Get the Facts   Take a Quiz   Get our e-Newsletter   Donate now What We Do:   Stop Deforestation   Adapt to Impacts   Support Policy Where We Work on Climate Change Contact Us Press Releases Tell us what you think about climate change

Why Reducing Deforestation is Crucial The Role of Forests in Reducing Emissions Creating Incentives to Stop Deforestation Holding Forest Projects to a Higher Standard Projects that Make a Difference Curbing Deforestation to Slow Climate Change Help fight climate change With your help, we can reduce the impacts of climate change on our lives, on our environment and on future generations. The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility Read more on why The Nature Conservancy helped launch the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. We Want to Hear from You Tell us what you think about our climate change work.   You can also submit a climate change question to The Nature Conservancy’s “Ask the Conservationist" column.

The Nature Conservancy is demonstrating how protecting and restoring forests and grasslands can help reduce carbon emissions that lead to climate change. We believe such projects are an integral part of the climate change solution, and support forest and other conservation projects that:

• sequester carbon (or prevent its release by avoiding deforestation),
• increase regional biodiversity,
• foster sustainable livelihoods among local communities.

In support of this goal, the Nature Conservancy is conducting research around the world to demonstrate how to measure the amount of carbon captured by forests. We also maintain several forest carbon projects in which we are measuring carbon storage and facilitating the sale of carbon "credits" to governments and businesses looking to offset their carbon emissions.

At the same time, the Conservancy is looking at national-level approaches to reduce emissions from deforestation, measure avoided emissions, and develop credible mechanisms with which to compensate governments and communities for their forest emission reductions. 

These efforts demonstrate that forest restoration and conservation are viable vehicles to reduce emissions, protect ecosystems and enhance local communities:

• Garcia River Forest, California
  On California's north coast, the Conservancy is working to restore over 23,000 acres of forest to help reduce climate change.
• Rio Bravo, Belize
  The Rio Bravo climate action project involves the conservation and sustainable management of more than 153,000 acres of forest in northwest Belize.
• Noel Kempff, Bolivia
  Through a unique partnership, this Nature Conservancy project is helping protect 1.5 million acres of Noel Kempff Mercado National Park in northeastern Bolivia.
• Guaraqueçaba Environmental Protection Area, Brazil
  These projects seek to restore and protect approximately 50,000 acres of tropical forest within the Guaraqueçaba Environmental Protection Area in southern Brazil.
• Midwest Forest Restoration, United States
  The Midwestern forest restoration project involves the restoration of almost 1,000 acres of forest in Ohio and Indiana. It is estimated that the project will reduce, avoid or mitigate approximately 150,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent over 40 years by bringing back native forests to this area.
• Tengchong Forest, Yunnan Province, China
  A joint project between the Conservancy and Conservation International (CI) in Tengchong, China, this site recently became the first project to be certified under the comprehensive CCB standards.  Over 30 years, the project will remove nearly 160,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Together, these projects have kept 17.5 million tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere over 30 years, equivalent to keeping 3.1 million cars of the road for one year.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Marci Eggers/The Nature Conservancy (Atlantic Forest rainforest, Guaraquecaba, Brazil); Photo © Ana Garcia/The Nature Conservancy (Spider Monkey in Rio Bravo, Brazil).