ACR, a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, has approved a Methodology for the Quantification, Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions and Removals from Active Conservation and Sustainable Management on U.S. Forestlands.

This science-based methodology provides the quantification and accounting frameworks, including procedures for determining eligibility, assessing additionality, and quantifying, monitoring, reporting, and verifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions and removals (ERRs) for the creation of carbon credits from active conservation and sustainable management on non-federal U.S. forestlands.

Every year, the US loses nearly three million acres (1.2 million hectares) of forest to other land uses, negatively affecting wildlife and water quality and releasing carbon emissions into the atmosphere. The new ACR methodology – developed in partnership with Green Assets, Inc. – uses carbon finance to conserve and sustainably manage forests that are at risk of conversion to non-forest uses.

The Methodology for the Quantification, Monitoring, Reporting and Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions from Active Conservation and Sustainable Management on U.S. Forestlands generates carbon credits from forgoing the conversion of at-risk forests to agriculture, mining, real estate, and other non-forest land use development, and instead employing long-term conservation via 40+ year legally binding easements to durably protect and sustainably manage the forest resources.

In development since 2021, the publication of the new ACR methodology marks a significant step forward in addressing climate change through land-based initiatives and incentivizing active conservation and sustainable forest management practices. To qualify, landowners must demonstrate the threat of forest conversion through a qualified appraisal, then enact a legally binding conservation easement that ensures long-term carbon storage and accumulation associated with continued forest cover.

The quantified forest carbon stored and sequestered through forest growth on eligible projects generates tradable market assets in the form of carbon credits, which reward the landowner financially for the climate and ecosystem services benefits their forestlands provide.