“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Forestry Projects for Terrestrial Sequestration -- Regulatory and Public Acceptance Issues -- Jim Cathcart, Ph.D. Oregon Department of Forestry West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership Kick-Off Meeting September 30 - October 1, 2003 Sacramento, California

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Terrestrial Component - Forestry Regional Opportunities - State by state baselines and carbon supply curves Feasibility - “pilot projects” Regulatory and Public Acceptance - Policy development

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Carbon Pools Above Ground Dead Wood Below Ground

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Scale TreeStandLandscape

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Examples of Actions Forestation - (sequestration and storage) Longer Rotations - (increase carbon pools) Structure Based Management - (increase carbon pools, especially dead wood) Forest Health - stabilize carbon pools Tree Planting - Cities (energy savings) Conserve Forestlands - (avoid carbon losses)

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Pilot Project Considerations Land Use Change (1) Forestation of marginal agricultural land, grazing lands or degraded and understocked forestlands Forest Management (1) Alternative Silviculture - Increasing carbon storage in large trees and dead wood. (2) Reducing Wildland Fire Risk - Thinning and hazardous fuel treatments. (3) Riparian Functions - Protect, enhance and restore. (4) Growing stock - Longer harvest rotations

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Feasibility Analysis Technical Capacity - Ability to sequester and store, or avoid release of, carbon dioxide Cost - Opportunities forgone, implementation Quality Assurances - Additionality, leakage, permanence, reliability, risk. Monitoring - Measurement, accounting and reporting Verification - Auditing, registration, certification.

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Objective - Feasibility Analysis Identify pilot demonstration projects for Phase II implementation that are the most: Cost effective, Technically feasible Publicly acceptable.

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Regulatory and Public Acceptance Issues Buy-In Co-Benefits Changed Behavior Accounting Effectiveness

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Buy-In Education and outreach Public understanding, acceptance and support that increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide is a problem worth solving Curriculum based primary school education programs Showcase successes and failures. Policy Development Science based Incentive based - landowners are the solution, not the problem Form stakeholder groups and advisory committees so special interests gain access and ownership to policy development

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Co-Benefits Terrestrial carbon sequestration technologies must lead to the other things we want from our forests. Environmental Social Economic Incentive for Sustainable Forestry

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Changed Behavior Additionality Wickedness Current -- Direct causation. We made it happen. Rewards non-regulated behaviors (i.e., most obvious changed behavior). What’s Needed -- People make investments in carbon storage practices a priori are first in line in getting a return on this investment through market-based payments.

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Changed Behavior Baseline Wickedness Problem -- People with lower baselines have more to sell. The best way to position yourself in the market is to lower your baseline now. Solution -- Baseline is not what someone is doing, but what someone could have been doing (i.e., allow use of a conceptual baseline to properly reference good behavior and early adopters).

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Changed Behavior Baseline Creep Problem -- Changes in forest protection law standards penalizes those early adopters that exceeded previous forest protection law standards (a regulatory taking of the value of their carbon storage if you will). Solution -- Carbon storage gains brought about by changes in forest protection law standards need to still “count” - any market value of the carbon storage should be used as the compensation mechanism for the regulatory change.

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” CARBON ACCOUNTING Principles Measured Transparent Complete Standards Debits and credits Duration (permanence) Baseline and scale End-product use Co-Benefits Leakage Other greenhouse gases Public access Third party verification Quality and Reliability

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Effectiveness Can We Make a Difference? New forests take decades to come on line with storage Limits to how much carbon can be stored in forests Forest health risks exacerbated by climate change Changes in species distribution and growth dynamics Terrestrial sequestration is considered a near- to medium- term solution for mitigating growth in atmospheric concentrations of CO 2.

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Example Riparian Management “Pilot”

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Example Riparian Management “Pilot” Feasibility Technical capacity -- Baseline conditions, structural capacity (living and dead biomass) to increase carbon storage, management practices to achieve structural capacity. Cost -- Opportunities forgone from reduced timber harvest. Quality Assurances -- Voluntary and regulatory standards (additionality questions), increased harvest elsewhere (leakage), durability of riparian buffers (permanence and risk), changing landowners and land use (reliability).

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Example Riparian Management “Pilot” Feasibility Monitoring -- Sample design and frequency, development and use of regional look-up tables, spatial and tabular database design, reporting requirements. Verification -- Repeatability of sample design, transparency of records and reports.

“STEWARDSHIP IN FORESTRY” Example Riparian Management “Pilot” Regulatory and Public Acceptance Issues Buy-In - Compensation for improved riparian management. Co-Benefits - Fish and water quality. Changed Behavior - More riparian protection. Accounting - Periodic, repeatable and transparent measurements of carbon pools. Effectiveness - Documented reductions in CO 2 from increased long-term carbon storage.