Factsheet Establishment of Natural Forests

Additionality risks for this project type are likely low. Many projects exclusively rely on revenues from selling carbon credits to fund the planting of trees as well as maintaining and protecting the grown forest. Additionality risks for the project type are mainly the lack of systematic checks whether governments at a later stage of the project enact legal  requirements that would mandate the establishment of natural forest. Quantification methodologies for this project type will likely lead to an overestimation of removals, but for most methodologies, the degree of overestimation is likely to be low to medium. The project type has material non-permanence risks as forests are inherently in jeopardy of being  destroyed or degraded. Carbon crediting programs apply different approaches for addressing this risk, leading to a range of scores for this quality objective. Establishing more natural forests is essential for achieving the transition to net zero emissions. Sustainable development benefits for the project type are highly dependent on the context of the individual  project.