Forestry offsets head back to the future

When eco-chic can mean anything from carbon-neutral car insurance to sustainably sourced coffee, where do trees fit into the current hotlist of green trends?

Forestry is at the forefront of carbon markets right now. Discussions at the highest level between world leaders have leap-frogged the rebellious misdemeanors of local tree-hugging activists in both scale and ambition.

Many companies have invested in tree-planting activities over the years to voluntarily offset unavoidable emissions from fossil fuel-based activities such as air transport and energy use.

Trees are tangible. People understand what it means to plant a tree or indeed stop one from being chopped down, rather than assess the relative benefits of investing in biomass co-generation over methane capture and destruction.

Let us not forget that trees actually reduce carbon through carbon sequestration. In addition, some of the community based forestry projects can benefit local communities in other ways.

However, forestry projects have had their problems. In 2002, the band Coldplay used credits from a forestry project to offset the carbon created from their tour. But an investigative journalist later exposed the project as damaging to the forest, leading to questions about the long-term positive benefit of the carbon reductions and the offsetting.

But the forestry offset sector should not necessarily take these historical tales of woe to heart. The most up-to-date methodologies allow a buffer of offsets or an insurance mechanism to guarantee the permanence and risks of leakage, where forest protection schemes simply push loggers into another region.

Buyers of carbon offsets also want assurances about where their money is going. Luckily, forestry projects deliver some of the most compelling stories in terms of showing how cash really makes a difference. Many projects like these will simply cannot start without offset funding.

Additionally, there are signs that forestry projects could be included in the formal carbon market under the successor to Kyoto. When the Kyoto protocol was first being negotiated, many NGOs blocked the use of forestry credits as a mechanism for meeting countries' emission targets.

They argued that forestry would not promote a move towards a low-carbon economy, but interestingly several of the most well-known NGOs, including Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy, are now some of the key proponents of forestry projects. Clearly, forestry needs to be a part of the agreement that is scheduled to be agreed at the COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen later this year.

Avoided deforestation projects or Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) have also gained high-level exposure via support from a wide variety of public figures ranging from the Prince of Wales to California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Schwarzenegger recently laid down proposals that could see forestry projects in Brazil and Indonesia potentially included in the Western Climate Initiative regional carbon cap-and-trade scheme, and also set out guidelines on the wider use of forestry offsets.

Meanwhile, the recently released draft version of The American Clean Energy and Security Act 2009 allows for both domestic and international offsets, which could include forestry offsets, and specifically states that income from the proposed cap-and-trade scheme could be recycled back to fund international REDD projects from qualifying countries.

So does forestry warrant this increased attention? Yes it does, according to the 2006 Stern Review. It found that deforestation causes 24 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions and 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions globally, whereas the global transport sector causes only 14 per cent.

And anticipation is certainly in the air ahead of Copenhagen. Not only in terms of the likely outcome of a post-Kyoto agreement, but in the fact that forestry is likely play a role.

Curbing deforestation is a highly cost-effective way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and is vital if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Maybe that's why more and more companies are looking to incorporate forestry projects into their carbon-neutral programmes to show leadership and promote innovation.

Lisa Ashford is global head of voluntary and new markets at carbon offset specialist EcoSecurities