Investment Basics

According to a recent report by the Forest Trends? Ecosystem Marketplace and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, in 2010, projects that reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) accounted for 29% of carbon credits transacted in the voluntary market. Forestry investors can -- and should -- take full advantage of offsetting their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through forestry investments, so evaluating their options before investing is essential.





What Are the Standards

A forestry investment project has to meet certain pre-set criteria before the carbon credits it produces are deemed eligible for offsetting and trading. There are several third-party certification entities that usually deal with project evaluations. The Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) is the main verification scheme to look at when it comes to making sure that your prospective forestry investment project is producing valid carbon credits. According to the above-mentioned report, in 2010, VCS carbon credits held 34% of transaction volumes on the voluntary carbon market, placing it at the top spot among third-party standards. Other third-party verification schemes are The Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standards, the Climate Action Reserve (CAR), the newly-added Brasil Mata Viva (BMV) and Forest Carbon Standard International, as well as the specialty standards CarbonFix and Plan Vivo. The UK recently launched their own Woodland Carbon Code, created by the Forestry Commission, to empower and ensure investors looking to inject money into forestry that the projects they are selecting are, indeed, carbon-credible.



Where to Find Them

Each of the above-mentioned third-party verification standards has a registry, which lists projects, including all forestry investments, that have been thoroughly evaluated and certified as carbon-credible. The Rainforest Alliance has listed links to some major registries, where potential investors can browse projects, pick and reach out to the companies behind them for more information on the nature of the forestry investments.



What to Look For

Once an investor has selected forestry projects that meet the requirements for certification, they can now look further into the details of the initiative to pick and choose which project features answer their own personal investment preferences and priorities. The Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, a U.S. independent enviromnetal research organization, has created a uniform scorecard, which can serve as a checklist to any investor, giving them an starting point for questions they need to address with the forestry investment project before making a final decision. The scorecard consists of 43 yes/no questions, which examine eight general components of the forestry offset projects:



1. Contract structure (ownership, compliance with local laws, length of project)

2. Baselines (qualitative description and quantitative calculation)

3. Additionality (does it prevent new emission reductions or remove existing ones to compensate for new emissions someplace else)

4. Monitoring, measurement, reporting and verification (the ability to carry out the monitoring/measurements; will a third party regularly review and verify accuracy)

5. Permanence (all of the project?s carbon risks and risk management strategies)

6. Leakage (does a project cause GHG emissions elsewhere)

7. Transparency (will project records and verification reports be publicly available)

8. Co-benefits/costs (what positive environmental, social and economic outcomes does the offset project produce)

By: Tonka Dobreva

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Gathering all data and asking the right questions before making a forestry investment ensures not only a good return of investment, but also stability and durability for the investment. As most forestry projects are typically long-term investments, it makes it that much more important to choose certified forestry projects that place importance on continuity.