Managing forests for carbon–Status of the forest carbon offset markets in the United States

Nature-based climate solutions are gaining international policy attention–with forests highlighted as a primary pathway for storing carbon. However, evaluations of additional carbon benefits and the permanence of forest carbon offset projects remain scarce. In response, we compiled a novel database to analyze trends in existing forest management projects from the two offset project registries (Climate Action Reserve and American Carbon Registry) who list, report, and verify forest carbon offsets in California’s Compliance Offsets Program, part of the state’s Cap-and-Trade Program. We found that improved forest management projects represent 96% of all credits from forestry projects and 80% of all offset credits to date and span a diverse set of forest management practices with different potential for carbon storage. Our results show that 26% of existing forest carbon offsets in the United States face the hazard of wildfire. From a policy perspective, these findings underscore the need for a robust framework to monitor and evaluate cumulative and future carbon benefits of forest-based offset projects, and for assessing the risk of reversal associated with each project.