Leveraging the Landscape: State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2012

background

This report reviews the state of the international forest carbon market, including the finance and development of reforestation projects.

Conclusions & Takeaways

Worldwide, in 2011, REDD credits fell and afforestation/reforestation credits grew. The greatest volume of credits is in the Americas, and VCS and CDM are the most used standards (CAR is used for California). Additionally, 29% of credits got a CCB (Climate, Community, Biodiversity) standard (and a higher premium for their credits). Increasingly, reforestation credits have been issued as trees in A/R project mature and begin to sequester more carbon, and as projects are newly approved and pre-payments are issued. Brasil and US / Canada dominate the market by being home to ~ 30% of total project locations. The only two REDD projects issued credits under VCS in developing countries were located on private lands (Belize and Kenya). A/R project are increasingly using more native species (but at least 1/3 are still monoculture). A Chinese standard (Panda standard), in coordination with Winrock, developed a standard for bamboo reforestation projects. The majority of the buyers of the credits were companies seeking to meet CSR targets or compliance under Kyoto CDM.