A large forestry company in British Columbia will refrain from logging 40,000 hectares of forest for at least 25 years in order to sell carbon credits. A strategy which, according to her, will not reduce her profits compared to logging… and could even increase them.
Patches of forest on Vancouver Island and the Haida Gwaïi archipelago will thus be spared the teeth of mechanical saws and will be able to continue to absorb CO2 for decades, Mosaic Forest Management announced last week.
The territory preserved under the BigCoast Forest Climate Initiative is almost as large as the island of Montreal and represents approximately 7% of the private territory under the company’s control. These are “old growth forests” which for the most part have never been logged, but which figured in the company’s harvesting plans for the next few years.
“The forest carbon market will play a very important role in the ongoing transition, as many companies aim for carbon neutrality by 2050,” said Domenico Iannidinardo, Vice President Forest and Climate at Mosaic, in an interview.
The company estimates that its project will “capture and store” more than 10 million tonnes of CO2 compared to the normal course of business, that is to say a logging. It will also protect “sensitive ecosystems”, “wildlife habitats”, “watersheds” and “lands of cultural significance to First Nations”.
Mosaic expects to earn $100 million to $300 million from its carbon credits, offered on the voluntary offset market and certified by the Verified Carbon Standard program. “With carbon credits, we expect to make at least as much money, or even more, than with timber harvesting,” says Iannidinardo.
A complex calculation
While planting trees can absorb CO2 in the air, the postponement of cuts makes it possible, in theory, to avoid emissions. These emissions come mainly from the decomposition and combustion of wood residues. Calculating carbon fluxes for an “elongation of cutting cycles” project is, however, a difficult task.
First, to be effective in terms of carbon, the preservation of a patch of forest must not be accompanied by the displacement of cuts to another territory, notes Jean-François Boucher, a professor at the University from Quebec to Chicoutimi specializing in forest carbon sequestration.
Then, the calculation of avoided emissions should take into account the CO2 that will not be stored in the wood products from the cuts. For example, in their wooden frames, houses can store carbon for decades; not exploiting forests means giving up on this sequestration.
With carbon credits, we expect to make at least as much money, or even more, than with timber harvesting.
Mr. Boucher also points out that forests where timber is harvested using sustainable forest management (SFM) practices can, in many cases, store more carbon than land left to fend for itself. The density of the forest or its composition, for example, can be modulated thanks to AFD.
“Biodiversity, ecosystem services, the beauty of the landscape: there are plenty of arguments to protect portions of the forest, thinks Mr. Boucher. However, the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, for me, is not a good argument, because most of the time it can be dismantled. »
The age-old cedar and hemlock forests of British Columbia, however, may be exceptions. It takes “tremendous time” to regenerate these “behemoths,” says Boucher. In the context of the climate crisis, their protection is probably beneficial, but the professor does not have the details to confirm this.
Finite Carbon is coming to the country
Mosaic is not the only company in the country to want to create carbon credits by delaying the harvesting of forests. Finite Carbon, an American company that develops forestry projects to offset GHG emissions, launched a Canadian program last December.
The strong demand for carbon credits on the voluntary market since 2020 – boosted by multinationals aiming for carbon neutrality – played in the company’s decision to settle north of the 49and parallel,” says David Stevenson, Canadian Operations Manager at Finite Carbon. “There are a lot of forests in Canada,” he adds. And the price of carbon in the Canadian regulatory market is enormous compared to that in the United States. »
Finite Carbon has not officially started a project in Canada, but is in discussions in several provinces with large landowners, First Nations and Métis groups. In the United States, two-thirds of its projects are linked to indigenous groups who want to use their territory without harvesting timber.
Well aware of the difficulties of carbon accounting for conservation projects, Stevenson insists that forest credits are part of the package of solutions. “Forests don’t store carbon indefinitely, he agrees, but they can lock it in for 40, 60 or 100 years. We must do everything possible now. »