A Bearadise

Common practice with regard to additionality is well proven; there is no indication of comparable conservation acquisitions in the region surrounding the project that provide material revenues from conservation without carbon finance, indeed this is unique in comparison to other conservation activities. Even the most remote parts of the world are under severe threat from logging, hunting, poaching. This formerly logged land will now have a chance to recover and continue to sequester carbon and avoid emissions from logging and transport long past our lifetimes.

Project Type: Avoided Nature Loss

Carbon Standard: Verra

Vintage: 2021

Additionality: The carbon project generates no material financial or economic benefits other than carbon-related income.

Permanence: All five parcels are now in public ownership and protected in perpetuity for conservation and wildlife protection purposes under Federal easements. The VCS Buffer Discount Factor (BRY) was calculated as 13%

Site Visit: August 2022

This old-growth spruce forest project on the North Coast of Afognak Island, sequestered about 100,000 tonnes of emissions in 2014 and will sequester about 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents over its 30-year life. The project achieves reductions by protecting unlogged forests that would be logged in the absence of carbon finance. The baseline for this project is a clear-cut, timber-harvesting scenario that relied only on very poor natural regeneration. These previous practices are clearly evident on the project and still continue on adjacent lands.

The island, located in Southwestern Alaska, 40 miles by air from Kodiak, is so remote it can only be accessed by boat or helicopter. The land parcel was created by the American Land Conservancy and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation in a period between 2005-2009 with the objective of conserving the land in perpetuity. Prior to the acquisition, the properties were being managed for timber production, with existing or pending logging plans in place across this and adjacent properties. The project will be managed and monitored by the State of Alaska for the purpose of wilderness and ecosystem protection.

Funds from the sale of carbon will be used for property management and direct carbon project annual monitoring, verification, registration, and issuance expenses.

• Sequesters carbon over a 30-year crediting period
• Recovers ecosystem home to grasses, blueberries, feather and tree mosses
• Protects of 5 species of salmon, brown bears, otters, weasels (ermines), deer, goats, beaver, rabbits and bald eagles
• Provides local jobs in regard to property supervision and monitoring

• Fire is always a possibility with large isolated tracts of forest
• Illegal Logging
• Needs monitoring and protection 365 days of the year
• Annual reporting may not be available and measurable SDGs in addition to sequestering carbon for Climate, are likely to be limited to perhaps Clean Water and Life on Land.  These latter benefits are not likely to measurably change over time