Woodland Carbon Storage
The Forestry Commission’s second online auction for selling woodland carbon units is being held between 8-19 June. The first auction held earlier this year saw 18 out of the 31 applications successfully agreed, indicating how much money landowners could earn from carbon offsetting in their new woodlands.
The Woodland Carbon Code, launched in 2011, is the UK’s government backed standard for woodland carbon projects, and provides the mechanism for landowners to attract carbon funding to support woodland creation projects on their land. Creating woodland with the Woodland Carbon Code allows you to sell the carbon units from your woodland. In order to sign up to the Woodland Carbon Code and sell carbon from your woodland creation project you need to make sure you are eligible, register within two years of the planting being started and validate your project within three years of registering. You will also be required to check your project after five then every ten years, to monitor progress and have the carbon sequestered to date independently verified.
The Woodland Carbon Guarantee is an incentive scheme which will provide long-term (30-35 years) payments for carbon sequestration to landowners in England who plant new woodlands. The scheme will offer successful participants the option to sell woodland carbon units to government at a guaranteed price set by auction, which may be above current market rates.
For more information see www.woodlandcarboncode.org.uk