Carbon for Forests to Offer an Effective and Verifiable Carbon Offset Financing for Park and Wildlife Protection

Images courtesy ASU Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science

New Carbon for Forests Program to Help Finance Global Park Defense

Global Conservation’s Carbon for Forest is the first forest-based carbon offset program which directly funds the protection and restoration of tropical forests, using Advanced Satellite Monitoring combined with ISO-standard monitoring and verification.

Carbon offset fiunancing enables multi-year funding of Global Park Defense for on-the-ground protection of forests and wildlife habitats.

Global Conservation is partnering with Arizona State University (ASU) Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science for Satellite Monitoring and Carbon Value Verification using 3D Lidar and Multi-spectral analysis.             

Working with Nature Needs Half, we are determining Ecosystem Priorities in selecting the Global Park Defense projects and endangered national parks where we work.

Our Planet has lost over 40% of our tropical forests over the past twenty years - over billion acres - equal to the size of the nations of Colombia, Thailand or Kenya.

Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover only 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests - 2.4 billion acres or 5 million square miles - could be consumed in less than 40 years.

Despite high hopes for the UN-REDD program, after eight years and US$280 million spent on conferences, videos and numerous reports, UN-REDD has utterly failed to reduce deforestation. Over $1.6 billion spent on design and set-up of REDD projects for Avoided Deforestation over the past 20 years,  yet politics and bureaucracy has blocked needed funding for real forest protection or reforestation, especially in countries facing the highest threats. Today, only 26 REDD+ projects are today operational generating less than $100 million a year for forest protection from carbon offsets.

We are going to change this.

Global Conservation is focusing on Carbon Offset projects where we have National Park Agreements to enable direct financing Global Park Defense for park and wildlife protection for endangered UNESCO World Heritage and National Parks in high deforestation countries.

National Parks in developing countries are our last bastions for saving intact forests and critically endangered wildlife habitats.

Loss of Tropical Forests – Last 20 Years

Indonesia - Tropical forest loss over past 20 years due to palm oil plantations, illegal logging and land clearing (Global Forest Watch).

Global Park Priorities

Working with Nature Needs Half, Carbon for Forests is targeting UNESCO World Heritage and National Parks in developing countries with the highest rates of deforestation.  By comparing national and regional deforestation rates with Gaines and Losses of forest coverage achieved through protection and reforestation programs, Carbon for Forests is able to accurately estimate the Carbon Offset Value (and changes) of each 1 million acres forest block for monitoring and verification. There are approximately 450 UNESCO World Heritage and National Parks in high deforestation rate countries, of which 100 or more will be determined suitable for Carbon for Forests funding.

Global Park Agreements

Based on global and country priorities, Global Conservation works with national park authorities and national governments – Ministries of Environment and Forestry – to secure specific Park Protection and Reforestation Agreements for each endangered national park. These Park Protection and Reforestation Agreements include:

·       Guarantees on forest protection, reforestation

·       Detailed mapping and carbon value estimates

·       Reduced / increased payments based on performance

·       Rangers and staffing

·       Annual budgets, co-funding

·       Threats and challenges

Carbon Offset Contracts

Carbon for Forests signs 20-year Carbon Offset Contracts with Large Carbon Emitters (LCEs) guaranteeing forest protection and reforestation goals in each National Park, typically in 1 million acres blocks.  Annual Performance Payments are made by in exchange for performance in Park Protection and Reforestation. If there are unexpected gains or losses in forest coverage and carbon values due, annual payments are adjusted accordingly. 

Forest Protection / Reforestation

Global Conservation and our partners support national park authorities to implement Global Park Defense using advanced protection systems, technology, communications and training to achieve ‘No Cut, No Kill’ protection within the national park.  Primary goal is to eliminate illegal logging and land clearing within the national park, and reforest destroyed or degraded areas to improve forest coverage and carbon values.

Peruvian Amazon measuring Forest Carbon Values (Image courtesy of ASU Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science).

Monitoring and Verification

Using Advanced Satellite Monitoring, Aerial Surveillance and on-the-ground truthing by patrols and monitoring teams, forest protection and reforestation progress is reported quarterly to LCEs showing exactly where Gains and Losses have occurred down to 10-meters accuracy. Scientific estimates are calculated using the latest image processing algorithms to provide a critical baseline at the start of each Carbon Offset Contract, and quarterly assessment son progress.  All reporting is available 24-7 through an online Carbon for Forests portal showing geographic location and extent of all Gains and Losses, and current threats and challenges.

Image courtesy of Planet, Inc.

Annual Reporting / Payment Adjustments

Each year, a review of progress is made to each LCE Investor showing in detail an inventory of all Gains and Losses in forest coverage and carbon offset values. Based on performance, annual payments are adjusted to reflect decreases / increases in the carbon offset value of the forest protection and reforestation efforts. 

Protecting 1 million acres of tropical forest prevents roughly 360 million tons of carbon dioxide from escaping into the atmosphere at a cost of only US$600-800,000 per year, or approximately $12-16 million over 20 years.

Offsets are calculated using National and Regional deforestation rates, compared against ‘Tree-by-Tree’ Carbon Values and Gains/Losses from aerial and satellite monitoring.  Forest Gains / Losses are measured and reported quarterly to investors, which can trigger changes (Increases/Decreases) to an LCEs annual payments for Carbon Offsets. To ensure accountability, Global Conservation signs agreements with each National Park Authority and a designated conservation partner detailing Carbon for Forest guidelines to protect forests and reforest damaged areas in and around UNESCO World Heritage, National Parks and their buffer zones.

Satellites and field research have dramatically improved the resolution of scientists’ measurements of carbon stored by forest ecosystems.  Credit: George Hurtt, University of Maryland

Lidar measurements of forests are giving scientists better understanding of how and how much carbon is absorbed and stored by forests 

(Image courtesy of ASU Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science).

Why Carbon for Forests?

·       National Parks, especially UNESCO World Heritage parks offer one of the last bastions to protection intact forests before they are destroyed and their carbon values lost.

·       Carbon offsets include both avoided deforestation and reforestation.

·       ISO-standard verification and monitoring, extendible to REDD+ and other emerging carbon verification regimes.

·       Advanced satellite monitoring and science-based forest and carbon offset accounting.

·       Highest standards of accountability and financial management.

·       Establishes strong park and forest protection forces using Global Park Defense methodology

·       Insured for performance against catastrophic forest losses.

CASE STUDY - Cardamoms National Park- Saving Cambodia’s Last Intact Tropical Forest

In a country like Cambodia facing 20-30% deforestation nationwide over the past 10 years, large-scale forest protection based on national parks will be the most direct and effective way to protect millions of acres of critical forest ecosystems.

Cambodia has one of the highest rates of deforestation in the world, third only to Nigeria and Vietnam, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).  The Cambodian government has played a large role in shaping the use of the country's forests.

Deforestation has directly resulted from poorly managed commercial logging, fuel wood collection, agricultural invasion, and infrastructure and urban development. Indirect pressures include rapid population growth, inequalities in land tenure, lack of agriculture technology, and limited employment opportunities.

Image courtesy of Wildlife Alliance.

Cambodia's primary forest cover fell dramatically from over 70% in 1970 at the end of the Vietnam War to just 3.1% in 2007.  Deforestation is proceeding at an alarming rate, with a total forest loss at nearly 75% since the end of the 1990s. In total, Cambodia lost 25,000 square kilometers of forest between 1990 and 2005, 3,340 square kilometers of which was primary forest. As of 2007, less than 3,220 square kilometers of primary forest remain, with the result that the future sustainability of Cambodia's forest reserves is under severe threat.

Cardamoms National Park was established in 2015 and is in dire need of international financial support in order to save one of Cambodia’s last intact tropical forest. Covering over 2.4 million acres, Cardamoms National Park is protected by Wildlife Alliance in partnership with the Ministries of Environment and Forestry.  With Carbon Offset funding, there is a high potential for the entire Cardamoms to be protected securing water, ecosystem services, tourism revenues and better livelihoods for millions of Cambodians.

Primary Benefits – Carbon for Forests

1)    Protects Large Intact Forests and Reforests damaged forests in and around National Parks over 25 Years.

2)    Directly Funds Park Protection, Monitoring and Enforcement

3)    Reduces CO2 Emissions from Forest Fires due to land clearing and illegal development.

4)    Offersa Global Portfolio of Intact Forests by Countries for targeting Carbon Offsets and aligning with Corporate Social Responsibility

5)    Generates Growth and Employment through Sustainable Tourism to UNESCO World Heritage and National Parks, including new infrastructure, roads and community services.

6)    Develops Human Capital in Developing Countries for park and forest protection, sustainable tourism and resource management.

New Technology Breakthrough - Monitoring Tropical Forest Carbon Stocks and Emissions using Planet Satellite Data

Funded by Global Conservation and OneEarth, researchers at the Arizona State University Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science (GDCS) are working with satellite imagery from Planet Inc., an Earth-imaging company based in San Francisco, to develop maps of carbon stocks and emissions for Peru by combining millions of hectares of airborne laser measurements of canopy height with thousands of high resolution Planet satellite images.

High-resolution carbon monitoring will be able to clearly quantify the cost of deforestation, and reveal the precise location of carbon emissions from illegal logging, land clearing, palm oil plantations and gold mines.

Using this technology, the researchers were able to estimate a total of 6.9 billion metric tons of carbon stored aboveground in Peru’s diverse ecosystems, of which only 2.9 billion tons are found in protected areas.

They found that between 2012 and 2017, 80 million metric tons of new carbon were sequestered aboveground in forests, but another 96 million tons were emitted via logging, deforestation and other factors. This resulted in a net loss of forest carbon in the five-year study period.

“Our study powerfully demonstrates a new capability to not only measure forest carbon stocks from space, but far more critically, to monitor changes in carbon emissions generated by a huge range of activities in forests,” said Greg Asner, director of ASU GDCS and co-author of the study. “The days of mapping forests based simply on standing carbon stocks are behind us now. We are focused on carbon emissions, and that’s precisely what is needed to mitigate biodiversity loss and climate change.”

Man-made ecosystems are poor substitutes for their natural counterparts. For example, tree plantations are not forest ecosystems; they are crops of trees that store far less carbon than natural forests, and require much more upkeep. Plantations are also ghost towns compared to the complex biodiversity found in natural forests.

ASU will provide actionable mapping of tropical forest carbon stocks with unprecedented spatial and temporal detail by combining high-resolution satellite imagery and advanced artificial intelligence analytics.

ASU's approach results in high-resolution diversity and carbon stock maps that can be updated through time, without a repeated use of the original, limited airborne data, thereby radically reducing cost while generating repeatability on a highly automated basis.

Simplified workflow to estimate aboveground carbon density (ACD). We use Planet high-resolution spectral and textural features together with available LiDAR measurements of top of canopy heights. LiDAR data are split into training and validation samples. Machine learning techniques are used to predict the ACD map, which is validated against ACD validation samples from CAO not used in training the model. The ACD map (right side of the image) is a subset of the Peru-wide ACD map obtained using Planet and airborne LiDAR data.

For more technical methodology, see:

Monitoring tropical forest carbon stocks and emissions using Planet satellite data

Published: 28 November 2019

Ovidiu Csillik, Gregory P. Asner et al

Dr. Greg Asner

Director, Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science at Arizona State University

Greg Asner is the Director of the Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science at Arizona State University. He also serves as a Professor in ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning as well as the School for Earth and Space Exploration. He is an ecologist recognized for his exploratory and applied research on ecosystems and climate change at regional to global scales. His research spans the areas of spatial ecology and biodiversity, terrestrial carbon cycle, animal-habitat interactions, and climate change. Dr. Asner has published hundreds of scientific articles and has served in numerous national and international programs with NASA, the U.S. State Department, and the United Nations. Asner is a recipient of multiple scientific awards including the Heinz Award for the Environment. He is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.