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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 U.S. Department of Energy and other groups monitor carbon storage in vegetation around the world.
Click on the map above to see the DOE’s global analysis for carbon stored in above- and belowground vegetation.
There is a large body of knowledge demonstrating the value of protecting and restoring forests in reducing carbon emissions that lead to climate change. However, selecting viable sites and implementing climate change forest projects can be challenging. Some of the issues include:
- Additionality and Measurement, which requires that the reduction of carbon emissions would not have taken place even in the absence of the project. In other words, is this something that would have happened anyway? If not, how much is the project increasing carbon storage?
- Leakage, which occurs when emissions avoided within a site are not eliminated, but rather displaced to another location, or when sequestration at a site leads to land clearing elsewhere.
- Permanence, which, simply stated, is the life of the project. It wouldn’t help to reduce climate change much if a tree were planted one year only to be cut the next. The most desirable carbon sequestration projects are those where the protected land is likely to remain intact indefinitely. Since The Nature Conservancy generally expects areas to be protected in perpetuity, we have an advantage over other project developers that may have shorter term interests—such as commercial plantation forestry.
- Carbon inventories and monitoring. Carbon inventories are taken in both the project area and in the non-project baseline control or reference areas. Carbon monitoring refers to the periodic assessment of the net difference in carbon stored in project and non-project systems. The difference, when extrapolated across the project area and adjusted for leakage, represents the GHG benefit of a project.
- Verification, which occurs throughout the life of a project to ensure it meets its intended goals of carbon sequestration, increased biodiversity, and sustainable livelihoods.
Keeping these factors in mind, the Conservancy has developed a comprehensive set of guidelines to ensure its climate action projects will contribute most credibly to offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. Here are some of the ways we are addressing these challenges:
Additionality and Measurement
Conservancy sequestration projects incorporate historical ecological, land use and fire histories and trends; soil quality data; as well as related land recovery rates to determine what would likely have happened without our conservation action. We subtract carbon sequestration levels, or emissions avoidance levels, predicted if the project did not exist from the carbon levels held in the biomass and soils when the project is implemented. In short, we measure the difference between the with-project and without-project carbon levels.
Leakage
Historically, the Conservancy has addressed leakage by anticipating underlying drivers of land use decisions and including project components that help address them. This often leads to strategies that are common components of sustainable development. For example, strategies such as the intensification of agriculture, education programs, sustainable forest initiatives, and alternative community development such as micro-enterprises are key leakage prevention strategies. We are also now moving to very large, state and national assessments of progress to reduce emissions from deforestation. That allows us to detect forest clearing that is occurring outside of the immediate area that we are conserving. By addressing deforestation on a national level, rather than on a project-by-project basis, it is easier to account for leakage.
Permanence
The Conservancy generally expects projects to be protected in perpetuity, and there are a number of different strategies for this. In situations where land-titling assistance is needed, for example where indigenous peoples with strong environmental histories are seeking formal title, aid in land titling helps ensure the land is conserved. We also employ conservation easements, incorporate lands into protected area status, or seek other legal means to ensure long term protection.
Carbon Inventories and Monitoring
A carbon inventory is a measurement of the mass of carbon stored in vegetation, forest litter and soils. Carbon inventory methods include the establishment of random or systematically selected permanent plots for the measurement of trees, and the collection of field samples of understory, forest floor, coarse woody debris, and soil carbon. These carbon measurements are then converted to their CO2 equivalent. These assessments are conducted using plots of known sizes so that the results can be extrapolated to larger areas.
Verification
Finally, the Conservancy believes that all forest-based emissions reduction and sequestration projects should be monitored by third-party experts to ensure they meet their intended goals of carbon sequestration, increased biodiversity, and sustainable livelihoods. The Conservancy is a member of the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance which sets high standard for monitoring climate change projects around the world. The CCB standards are considered to be among the world’s best criteria for measuring climate change mitigation. In fact, some of the world’s most highly regarded project consultancies and investors, including the World Bank and EcoSecurities, are applying the standards to their climate change projects. The Conservancy has also partnered with The Société Générale de Surveillance, an internationally accredited organization for the CO2 emission certification, to verify its Noel Kempff Mercado Climate Action Project.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Mark Godfrey/TNC (Valdivian Coastal Reserve, Chile); Photo © Jez O'Hare (Ponape Agriculture and Trade lowland nursery, Micronesia).
