New global carbon standard launched to protect forestry

19/11/2008

A new global standard launched this week seeks to ensure agriculture and forestry protection projects are environmentally sustainable and credible providers of carbon offsets.

The new Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) will issue credits that can be sold on the global carbon market. Projects that will qualify for the VCS include deforestation projects, as well as projects which reduce the carbon impact of agricultural practices.

David Antonioli, chief executive of the VCS Association (VCSA), is hopeful the new assessment scheme will help boost forestry investment: "The new VCS rules will drive much needed investment into protecting the world's threatened forests as a means to stabilise our global climate," he said.

Up until now, some forestry investment schemes and projects have struggled to demonstrate whether the carbon offsets they sell relate to real emission reductions.
The ultimate aim of the new VCS standard is to engineer a situation in which developing nations will eventually be able to make more money from protecting forests and land than they can from clearing forests for agriculture and timber.

Toby Janson-Smith, a director with Conservation International is positive about the impact VCS will have on the forestry sector: "[The] launch of the VCS rules will not only boost market confidence in forest carbon activities but also, for the first time, enable projects that benefit local communities and biodiversity to access significant new global investment," he said.