Guidelines for Aggregating Forest Projects

As part of the Climate Action Reserve’s efforts to encourage greater participation by forest landowners in its voluntary carbon credit program, the Reserve worked to develop rules and procedures under which smaller forest projects may be “aggregated.” The goal of aggregation is to alleviate transaction costs for individual landowners while upholding the Reserve’s standards for quantification certainty and integrity. Allowing smaller projects to register as part of a group, or “aggregate,” can help reduce costs by enabling economies of scale and supporting the marketing of carbon credits at volume. By allowing aggregation, the Reserve is helping to make the Forest Protocol (FP) more accessible to a large percentage of the nation’s forestland owners.

The aggregation guidelines are referenced in the Forest Protocol Version 3.2, but are contained in a separate document that will be maintained and updated separately from the FP itself. The aggregation guidelines were approved by the Reserve Board in August 2010 and are available for download below.

Aggregation Guidelines Development Process

The Reserve convened a stakeholder workgroup in the fall of 2009 to help develop a set of recommendations on forest project aggregation. These recommendations were compiled into a proposed set of rules and guidelines for how the Reserve will implement an aggregation program. The draft of the guidelines are available below and were presented to the Reserve Board for adoption on August 31, 2010.

Proposed Final Guidelines for Aggregating Forest Projects

Staff Response to Public Comments

Reserve staff has responded to public comments received on the Forest Project Aggregation Proposal. The summary document is available below.

Public Comments

Original public comment letters are available below.

AgRefresh Hanes Ranch Inc.
Baldwin, Blomstrom, Wilkinson and Associates, Inc. New Forests Advisory Inc.
Blue Source LLC North Coast Resource Management
CarbonVerde, LLC Northcoast Regional Land Trust
CE2 Capital Partners Northwest Natural Resource Group
City of Arcata, CA Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Inc.
Ecotrust RRI Energy, Inc.
Element Markets Sierra Business Council
Environmental Services, Inc. Steve DeClerck
Finite Carbon Corporation The Pacific Forest Trust

Initial Aggregation Proposal

The Reserve convened a stakeholder workgroup in the fall of 2009 to help develop a set of recommendations on forest project aggregation. These recommendations were compiled into a proposed set of rules and guidelines for how the Reserve will implement an aggregation program.

Public Webinar on Aggregation Proposal

The Reserve hosted an informational webinar on May 18, 2010 to publicly discuss the proposed model for forest project aggregation. The meeting agenda and presentation slides are available below.

Agenda
Aggregation Proposal Overview Presentation

If you have questions about the aggregation proposal or public comment process, please contact the Reserve.