Standing Up for Climate Benefits PFT Backing Holistic, ‘No Net Loss’ Approach for Forests
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orests can work to keep our climate cool. But only if we stop their loss and conserve, manage and restore them so that they absorb and store more carbon. That’s why the Pacific Forest Trust is building strong climate policies and robust markets that will utilize forests as a key tool in the effort to combat global warming.
PHOTO BY ANDREA DELEON
We’ve had significant success in California this year as the state moves
closer to implementing its landmark climate legislation, Assembly Bill 32. We’re encouraged by the AB 32 proposed scoping plan’s inclusion of forests as a key sector. The proposed plan incorporates our recommended sector-wide approach to monitoring and managing the carbon stored in California’s forests, including a policy of “no net loss” of forest carbon benefits. It also calls for accurate accounting of forest-based emissions,
INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCE: A delegration of Chinese forestry officials led by Zhou Shaozhou (third from right) and German advisors from GTZ met with PFT’s policy team in October to learn about our forest carbon policy initiatives.
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which is especially critical as forests can affect other sectors including land use, construction, energy and transportation. The proposed plan also includes a role for the marketing of forest carbon emissions reductions, or “offsets,” that give landowners a financial incentive to manage their forests for climate gains. We continue to work with California’s Climate Action Registry in developing a “version 2.0” of their accounting protocols to ensure those emissions reductions are permanent, verifiable, and additional to what can be achieved with business-as-usual practices. “Our successes in California serve as a guide for our policy work in Washington State, the mid-Atlantic and southern states, as well as the Western Climate Initiative and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative,” says PFT President Laurie Wayburn. “We’re taking what we learn from these efforts across the country to advance a strong national framework for forest climate policy, in collaboration with landowners and other climate stakeholders.”
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ON THE COVER: A small sampling of the faces and places that have helped make PFT’s 15 years of service so special.
The Pacific Forest Trust recycled is a non-profit, Printed on FSC certified paper 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to sustaining America’s working forests for all their public benefits