Carbon credits for tree-planting activities
23rd November 2007 by Sarah Whitworth
In recent article, ‘Global voluntary offset marque launched’ it talks about the new VCS standard and how it seeks to tackle the problematic area of carbon credits for tree-planting activities.
Such projects account for at least 30 per cent of all voluntary offsets and are especially open to credibility questions, as planted trees can’t be guaranteed to be permanent stores of carbon – due to the possibility of fire, disease and subsequent logging.
The VCS seeks to address this by retaining a proportion of credits generated in a “buffer reserve” to cover the potential for future losses. Each project will have a percentage retained in such a pool, calculated according to the specific risks associated with it.
In forestry, the VCS will be open to projects in three areas:
Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation (ARR)
Improved Forest Management (IFM)
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation (RED)
