Pacific Forest Trust Honored by Climate Action Reserve for Advancing Forests in Climate Policy
(For Immediate Release – April 15, 2012) – The country’s largest carbon registry and offsets program has honored the Pacific Forest Trust (PFT) with its annual “Climate Action Champion” award, recognizing a decade of successful efforts to address climate change by harnessing the power of forests.
Ten years ago the Pacific Forest Trust (PFT) worked with California State Senator Byron Sher to develop Senate Bill 812, which successfully included forests in California’s landmark voluntary program to combat climate change. That program was an important precursor of California’s pioneering, economy-wide plan to reduce emissions—mandated by the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32)—now poised to launch in 2013.
Forests play a fundamental role in that plan thanks to leadership by PFT in the decade since, according to the Climate Action Reserve (CAR), the non-profit, private agency formed to ensure environmental benefit, integrity and transparency in the carbon offset market. On April 10 the organization honored PFT for its work to marshal the power of forests in California’s climate policies.
The Pacific Forest Trust helped build CAR from the organization’s “very start,” said CAR president Gary Gero, describing PFT as “truly visionary” in its work to lead the development of forest carbon accounting rules that can be applied to projects around the United States. Those rules have been adopted for use in California’s historic climate program.
“This is truly revolutionary work,” Gero said, presenting the award to PFT President Laurie Wayburn. “It’s the first time in any regulated, economy-wide greenhouse gas market that forest credits are recognized. And it’s due to the vision of the Pacific Forest Trust.”
Forests function as carbon “sinks,” which cool the climate by safely absorbing and storing the carbon dioxide that traps heat in the atmosphere. However, nearly two-thirds of U.S. forests are privately owned and threatened by degradation, development or conversion to land uses that would actually create emissions, rather than contain them. Forest loss and degradation accounts for one fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas pollution, and is the second largest source of global carbon emissions, after the burning of fossil fuels. It’s estimated that 40 percent of the excess CO2 in the atmosphere has come from deforestation since the Industrial Age.
PFT has been heavily engaged in making sure California’s new climate program recognizes the synergy between reducing forest loss and degradation and developing a market for financial returns from the restoration of forests and their essential climate benefits. With California’s historic climate program coming online, recognition of PFT’s work to advance AB 32’s role for forests is especially gratifying, said PFT President and Co-Founder Laurie Wayburn.
“This is a tremendous honor, and affirms one of the fundamental reasons Connie Best and I founded the Pacific Forest Trust nearly 20 years ago,” Wayburn said, after accepted the award at CAR’s 10th anniversary celebration in San Francisco Tuesday night. “One of our goals was to raise awareness of the fact that forests can be part of the greenhouse gas problem, or they can be part of the climate solution.
Since then the Climate Action Reserve, the state Air Resources Board and many other stakeholders have worked with us to develop a robust program for harnessing the powerful climate benefits of our forests. That’s something we can all be proud of.”
PFT’s work to galvanize forest and climate action came to the forefront with the California legislature’s 2002 approval of Senate Bill 812, which included the forest sector among those eligible to register verified emissions reductions with the state’s nascent climate project registry, administered by the precursor to CAR. The law also called for the creation of the “Forest Project Offset Protocol.” These forest carbon accounting protocols were integrated into California’s cap and trade program and provide a new opportunity to reward landowners nationwide for committing to better forest management.
“This is a perfect moment to reflect on the importance of forest conservation and stewardship to solving our climate crisis,” added PFT co-founder and co-CEO Connie Best. “It is also a perfect moment to acknowledge the critical importance of conservative accounting standards for forest carbon projects and the emissions reductions they produce. Thanks to the rigorous Forest Protocols adopted by CAR and California’s Air Resources Board, we can be sure that offsets from forests deliver real, measurable, long-lasting reductions in greenhouse gas pollution. We are honored to have played a leading role in helping achieve this.”
PFT led the development of the first version of the Climate Action Reserve Forest Project Protocol—adopted by the ARB as a voluntary, early-action tool to fight climate change in 2006—and has been intimately involved in all of the protocol revisions since then. Concurrently, PFT put those protocols to the test with The Van Eck Forest Project, California’s first registered emissions reduction project, which demonstrated how landowners can generate financial returns by stewarding their forests for climate benefits. Emissions reductions from the project have been sold to prominent local, state and national officials, as well as respected international carbon investment management firms, U.S. businesses and retail-level offset providers.
As California has developed its plan to achieve its climate goals under AB 32, PFT has worked closely with state regulators and other stakeholders to ensure that the contributions of forests as a sector are recognized in a comprehensive way. The state has adopted PFT’s framework that calls for measuring and monitoring forest carbon stocks and changes, mitigating losses, and marketing gains in forest carbon storage.
“California really led the way in adopting our call for ‘no net loss’ of U.S. forests’ climate benefits,” Wayburn said. “With AB32 we’re creating a model for measuring the greenhouse gas emissions forests store, mitigating for what is lost and use markets to reward landowners for doing the right thing—conserving and restoring our forests.”
PFT has directly influenced policies across the country, within the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative region including the mid-Atlantic states, Washington State, the Western Climate Initiative, the Southeast region and at the federal level. In May 2008, Wayburn testified about the role of forests in achieving U.S. climate goals in the first Congressional hearing ever on the subject. She also has worked with Al Gore and his Alliance for Climate Protection and the “Green Group” coalition of leading national environmental groups, to promote national climate policy goals compatible with international climate processes.
In 2010 PFT formed a diverse group of more than 70 forest land- and mill-owners, market groups, conservation and environmental organizations to advocate on behalf of working lands in federal climate legislation. The informal coalition sought to help conserve and sustain U.S. forests, farms and ranch lands through incentives and direct funding allocations created by federal climate and energy legislation.
While federal climate legislation stalled, PFT succeeded in advancing recognition of the climate impacts of land conversion at the state level, making the connection with existing state environmental quality laws in Washington State, California and Massachusetts. The latter state has progressed to revising their environmental quality law to mitigate for carbon emissions created by forest loss.
Today, PFT continues to work at the state, regional and national level to ensure forests are included in policies designed to combat global warming.
Other accolades for PFT’s climate advocacy included the prestigious U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2009 Climate Protection Award for teamwork, the 2008 Irvine Foundation Leadership Award and the 2008 Land Trust Alliance’s Kinsgbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award.
Last year’s winners of CAR’s Climate Champion Award included former CA Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Cal-EPA secretary and Seventh Generation founder Terry Tamminen, and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
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MEDIA: Laurie Wayburn and other coalition members are available to comment on the Forest Legacy amendment and group letter.
About the Pacific Forest Trust
Since 1993, the Pacific Forest Trust (PFT) has been dedicated to conserving and sustaining America’s vital, productive forest landscapes. Working with forest owners, communities and an array of partners, we advance innovative, incentive-based strategies to safeguard our nation’s diverse forests. In so doing, we’re ensuring forests continue to provide people everywhere — from rural communities to urban centers — with a wealth of benefits, including clean water, sustainably harvested wood, green jobs, wildlife habitat and a livable climate. To date, PFT has directly conserved 50,000 acres of forestland in California, Oregon and Washington valued at more than $160 million, including 40,000 acres that have been conserved with working forest conservation easements. PFT also is the project developer and manager of the Van Eck Forest Project, California’s first registered emissions reduction project. Recognized as a national leader in sustainable forestry and conservation, PFT has provided conservation advice and services to owners of more than 10 million acres of forestland from coast to coast. To learn more about PFT, please visit: www.PacificForest.org.