Quality of urban forest carbon credits

Arborists, urban foresters, and others involved in the management of urban trees in the United States were surveyed to determine the capacity of municipalities to deliver quality carbon offsets in a voluntary market. Respondents were asked about their urban forest management practices (e.g., presence of an inventory, tree management plan, and risk management plan), any current climate mitigation practices, and motivations for considering offset projects. Ten criteria were identified from the literature that define “quality” with regard to carbon offsets (e.g., additionality, permanence, quantification and monitoring, verification). The responses to the surveys were used to determine whether those quality criteria could be met through urban tree planting projects. The authors found that urban forest offset credits would be able to meet all of the quality criteria, with stronger performance in some areas (permanence, regionality, co-benefits) than others (scalability).