Recent Discussions on the Quality of Improved Forest Management (IFM)

This article is an automatically translated version of the original Japanese article. Please refer to the Japanese version for the most accurate information.

Another webinar announcement! We will be holding a seminar on nature-based Voluntary Carbon Market credits on May 24th. Please join us via this URL.

Also, our newly released product was featured in the Nikkei Shimbun.

Previously, we have covered the issue of Carbon Credit over-Issuance from nature-based projects, specifically focusing on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) projects several times. This time, we will introduce the discussion on the quality of Improved Forest Management (IFM) projects. Please refer to the following for an overview of project types such as REDD+ and IFM.

Fundamentally, IFM projects are positioned to support, through carbon finance, the opportunity costs associated with entirely stopping logging, extending felling cycles (logging intervals), or adopting environmentally less impactful logging methods in areas where forest management currently involves logging.

Since the first Credit Issuance in 2008, IFM projects have generated 193 million Offset Credits. The majority of these are from the American Carbon Registry (ACR), Climate Action Reserve (CAR), and Verra (Verified Carbon Standard; VCS). To date, IFM projects have generated 28% of all forest-based Offsets and 11% of all Carbon Credits generated in the Voluntary Carbon Market.

There are several VCS IFM Methodologies; an article explaining recent Methodologies is provided below.

IFM (Improved Forest Management) Methodologies

This is Sustainacraft Inc.'s 7th Newsletter. Forest projects are broadly categorized into Avoided Unplanned Deforestation (AUD), Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation (ARR), and Improved Forest Management (IFM). Within Verra, one of the Voluntary Carbon Markets, significant revisions of Methodologies are currently underway for each category. This time, we will focus on IFM and introduce three types: existing Methodologies in Verra, a new Methodology currently under development that integrates multiple previous Methodologies, and a Methodology proposed by the US startup NCX.

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Nearly all IFM Credits (approximately 94%) are from projects within the United States, and many of these projects claim increased carbon stock due to reduced logging compared to a Baseline scenario as their project's contribution.

In response, a review paper (Comprehensive review of carbon quantification by improved forest management offset protocols) organizing the issue of Carbon Credit over-Issuance in IFM projects was published in March of this year in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change by Barbara Haya et al. from the University of Berkeley.

This time, we will introduce this paper and rebuttal articles against media coverage discussing it.