The following text is from the Forestry Commission's "Code of Good Practice for Forest Carbon Projects" Consultation Document

Trees have a unique ability to sequester and store carbon and hence serve as a tool for carbon sequestration once options for direct emissions reduction have been used.

As focus grows on the need to manage greenhouse gases, there is increasing interest in using woodland creation as a carbon capture mechanism. In some countries forestry is being formally incorporated into internationally recognised carbon trading mechanisms, with credits being issued for carbon captured by woodland creation. This is not the case in the UK. There is however increasing interest in the use of woodlands for voluntary carbon capture projects, as well as to secure other ‘corporate social responsibility’ benefits.

However, the forest carbon market has been somewhat discredited by variability in the quality of schemes leading to doubts over issues like permanence, additionality and double selling. There are currently no uniform standards applied to UK forestry-based carbon projects, the sector has no trade body, accreditation scheme or consistent basis for verification. As a result there is no consistency to the offer made to prospective customers. Several international carbon standards and schemes exist, but currently there is little or no participation by the UK forestry sector, partly due to the need for a mechanism to allow retirement of national Assigned Amount Units under the Kyoto Protocol. DECC has launched a Quality Assurance Scheme to help guide consumers by giving a quality mark to offsets that meet a number of criteria. The scheme accepts credits from the compliance market, and not voluntary/VER credits. DECC intends to review the scope for expanding the scheme to potentially include voluntary credits in the light of a new international climate change agreement.

Through the establishment of a Code of Good Practice Forestry Commission is seeking to assist the development of the UK’s forest carbon sector in a way that provides transparency and confidence for individuals and companies with interests in woodland projects involving carbon sequestration. The aim is to provide improved standards and methodologies and to encourage confidence in UK forestry as a source of carbon reductions through independent verification. The design of the Code is aligned to international standards, but it does not currently provide a route for compliance with internationally recognised carbon offsetting standards.

The Read Report

An independent review of evidence published in 2009, “Combating Climate Change – a Role for UK Forests” (the Read Report) shows how the planting of 23,500ha of woodland per year in the UK could provide significant carbon savings in the 2050s.

Professor Sir David Read, Vice-President of the Royal Society said, “All our research points to the fact that forestry can make a significant and cost-effective contribution to meeting the UK’s challenging emissions reduction targets. While so many emissions reduction measures have negative connotations, tree planting can be a win, win, win solution: people love trees, we benefit from them in so many different ways, and now we know they could play a significant part in reducing the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions.”

Objectives of the Woodland Carbon Code

In developing and implementing a Code of Good Practice for Forest Carbon Projects, the aim is to:

• Embody a requirement for sustainable forestry practice consistent with the (revised) UK Forestry Standard.

• Focus on woodland creation projects in the first instance but seek to encompass additional aspects of forest carbon projects such as the use of
harvested wood products and their substitution value as robust methodologies can be developed.

• Make a clear distinction between independently verified well-managed forest carbon projects and other carbon abatement and tree planting projects.

• Encompass a code of good practice that ensures clarity over widely accepted carbon management principles such as: real, measurable, permanent, additional, independently verified, unique, transparent & conservative.

• Achieve, as far as possible, alignment with the principles and methodologies used in international carbon offsetting standards so as to better position domestic forest carbon schemes to engage with opportunities which may result from future developments in international carbon markets.

• Encourage participation and thus the development of the voluntary UK forestry carbon sector by minimising the conformance burden and offering customers obvious and clear evidence as to the robustness of the forestry carbon capture proposition.

• Complement wider UK Government emphasis on direct emissions reduction, to achieve consistency with Government’s position on carbon trading, international carbon markets and complements its Quality Assurance Scheme for Carbon Offsetting.

“It is now recognised that our woods and forests have a significant part to play in helping curb climate change. The Woodland Carbon Task Force will deliver the Forestry Commission’s contribution to shifting society to a lower carbon economy. But neither the Government nor the Forestry Commission can meet this challenge without the support of the very wide range of individuals and organisations involved and interested in our trees, woods and forests.”

Paul Hill-Tout, Director, Forestry Commission England