Forests represent both, one of the strongest drivers of, and solutions to, the rapid shift in the
earth’s climate. Integrating the use of forests as a cost effective solution into emerging global
carbon markets however has proven extremely difficult. The incentive for companies to utilize
carbon credits as a means to offset emissions is heavily dependent upon the credibility of the
project that created it. The difficulty proving the credibility of forest projects is largely due to
the inherent variation associated with forest environments. British Columbia’s pine beetle
epidemic provides an extreme example of just how quickly vast carbon sinks can suddenly
become sources. As such, the creation of standards to ensure the security of carbon
sequestered by forest projects has proven to be instrumental in encouraging their acceptance
into the market.
British Columbia has recognized that its forests play an integral role in its contribution to the
global carbon cycle. As a result, heavy consideration is being made as to how this resource may
be integrated as a source of carbon offsets for its own Cap-and-Trade market. This will mean
establishing specific standards for forest projects in a BC context.
This report reviews two regional standards from the states of Georgia and California, which
could be applied as templates for a set of BC specific protocols for forest carbon sequestration
projects. It is intended that through a comparison and analysis of these standards that potential
problems faced in applying similar standards here will be identified.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/16099 |
| Date | 02 December 2009 |
| Creators | Iverson, Chad |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Relation | University of British Columbia, Forestry Undergraduate Essays/Theses, 2008 winter session, FRST 497 |
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