Improved Forest Management: Success Stories

Improved Forest Management (IFM) projects result in increased carbon sequestration and emission reductions through changes in forest management practices and sustainable forest activities. Some of the main activities include changes in harvesting techniques to sustainable harvesting, forest rotations, and thinning. A large majority of the projects in the Voluntary Carbon Market are located in North America, about 93% of which 78% are registered under the Climate Action Reserve (CAR). 

Although land tenure rights vary depending on projects, ClimateSeed focuses its efforts to promote community-based projects that have strong social and environmental impacts as well as direct community involvement. The following two projects have been assessed to showcase the community's involvement in the project and its success.

Read our article for more information on The Importance of Improved Forest Management (IFM) Projects in the Voluntary Carbon Market.

Improved Forest Management in Mexico

IFM carbon projects in Mexico are usually certified under Climate Action Reserve (CAR) and follow the Mexico Forest Protocol. Most registered projects in Mexico are on communally owned land known as Ejidos. To be eligible, projects need to have a commercial harvesting permit authorized by Mexico's environment ministry (The Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources - SEMARNAT), which ensures that forest harvest does not exceed forest growth. As part of the protocol, IFM activities include: increase harvest rotation age towards optimum rotation age, harvest and thinning, control stocking, and reduce litter and surface fuels to prevent fires. 

Additionally, the protocol requires that social and environmental safeguards are met. While environmental safeguards require that native species are maintained and increased over the project's lifetime. For the social safeguards of communal projects, this means that community members understand the forest carbon project as well as its costs and benefits. Community participation and carbon credit sale transparency are key as well as proper project governance, where a project coordinator is selected by the community to represent the project both within and outside the community.

Improved Forest Management Project in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve  

This IFM Project covers 4,838 hectares of community forest in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve located in the State of Mexico and home (in the winter months of November to March) to the Monarch butterfly. This carbon project aggregates five communities in the region that carry out improved forest management activities and harvest both oyamel and pine trees when the Monarch butterfly is not present, which is from April to October. All five communities have been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for their sustainable management practices. The forest is owned by the communities and all activities are carried out by community members, the activities include fire prevention with the implementation and maintenance of firebreak gaps and surveillance, pruning, weeding, as well as reforestation. 

Not only does each community select a project coordinator to represent the carbon project, but also, each community landowner participates either directly through project activities or indirectly during decision-making voting through the communal General Assembly, which is required as a legal process to take community decisions. Through sustainable forest management practices, these projects create local employment opportunities, support the local economy and improve community living conditions. The communities not only actively participate in the projects, but also are the ones directly benefiting from them.

Improved Forest Management in the USA

IFM projects in the USA are usually certified under Climate Action Reserve (CAR) or ACR, both of which are US-based standards. Although CAR and ACR offer different methodologies, both offer country specific methodologies for US Forests. IFM projects need to demonstrate that there is an increase in on-site stocking levels beyond a business-as-usual scenario. In general, IFM carbon projects need to adhere to sustainable forest management practices, demonstrate that there is no activity-shifting leakage above the set threshold, and apply to lands that can be legally harvested by entities owning or controlling timber rights on the Forestland. For ACR for example, there needs to be: clear land title or timber rights, forest certification in the case that the lands are subject to commercial harvesting, and details on the native species composition.

Improved Forest Management in Alaska

The IFM project in Alaska covers 8,035.4 hectares of old growth forest and young growth hemlock-spruce forests in the Prince of Wales Island. The project aims to prevent harvesting activities and ensure long-term sustainable management in a non-federal US forestland, which could otherwise undergo significant commercial timber harvesting. The forest and timber rights are owned by a for-profit organization known as an Alaska Native Village Corporation that is made up of shareholders that received shares after establishing their Alaska Native heritage and who are from Native Indian descent. 

As a corporation and landowner, they decided to implement an IFM project and avoid aggressive timber harvesting by maintaining and enhancing the carbon stocks through sustainable natural forest growth and maintenance harvests to ensure forest health, including uneven-aged silviculture practices and non-commercial pruning to promote understory growth for wildlife habitat. The carbon credit revenues support community development for the indigenous people living in the region, including ecotourism, a micro hydroelectric project, and support the local culture and education. The Alaska Native Village Corporation is dedicated to providing economic benefits and opportunities to their tribal member shareholders and their families. All decisions pertaining to the forest are carried out with the approval of the Board of Directors and its members, ensuring local community participation.

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