To help forests in Southern Ontario bring offsets to market, the Eastern Ontario Model Forest has partnered with Bluesource, a carbon offset service provider. Bluesource is responsible for inventorying the carbon and bringing it to market. The process of calculating carbon volumes in a forest and taking them to market is not trivial. It is expensive and volumes of carbon stored per acre of forest can vary greatly from forest to forest. There is an exceptional amount of rigor and complexity in the process.

Due to high initial costs and the need for economies of scale, only owners with 5,000 acres of contiguous or non-contiguous land are currently financially viable. Pooling lands from multiple owners to reach 5,000 acres creates other challenges. Communications, governance, and joint liability must be addressed when multiple landowners are involved. If one landowner defaults, the rest are still responsible for paying the penalty. Pooling land is possible, but only where there are very few landowners and there are legal safeguards in place.

For more information about carbon offsets, contact Glen Prevost, OWA Program Coordinator at glen.prevost@ontariowoodlot.com.