NativState LLC of Conway announced March 18 that it had released and sold its first verified forest carbon credits.
The credits represent about 18,000 acres of sustainably managed forests across southern Arkansas. The project generates additional income for family landowners by creating an estimated 1.5 million carbon credits over the next 20 years.
The project’s credits are independently verified to comply with methods set down by ACR at Winrock International, a leading global carbon crediting program operating in global compliance and voluntary carbon markets. ACR is based in downtown Little Rock.
The program is NativState’s debut in the voluntary carbon market, and it uses what it calls a unique landowner aggregation model of to develop forest carbon. The company partners with small and medium-sized landowners across the South to develop forest carbon credits.
Living trees convert carbon dioxide in the atmosphere into wood, and that process can be measured in order to allot carbon credits. Companies and entities with emission reduction goals buy the credits.
Landowners in the South have harvested timber aggressively for years, according to a news release from NativState. The carbon credit program lets them balance harvesting with sustainable management and reap revenue via the carbon credits.
NativState also has partners looking to meet their emissions goals by buying the program’s high-quality credits.
NativState founder and CEO Stuart Allen said in the release that the United States has reached a critical milestone in the development of forest carbon credits and voluntary carbon markets.
“With the validation of ACR Project 783 and the initial sale of credits associated with that land, we have validated our model of creating truly additional, high-integrity carbon credits by aggregating landowners across our home region,” Allen said. “We have also proven that there is significant demand for high-integrity forest carbon credits from buyers in the offtake market space.”
According to NativState’s website, ACR Project 783 refers to the S&J Taylor Forest Carbon Project, which balances conservation of the Saline River bottoms’ riparian hardwood and “working” pines in the heart of Arkansas’ timber country.
“Diverse oak, gum, cypress, hickory, and pine forests located in south central Arkansas within the Gulf Coastal Plain ecoregion represent important habitat and provide essential buffers that abate sedimentation and nutrient runoff between development and waterways,” the website said.
Kurt Krapfl, forestry director at ACR, said the S&J Taylor project focuses on an area of high biodiversity and timber potential. “This project demonstrates how forest carbon projects can promote sustainable forest management and ecological value while also generating climate benefits and forest products,” Krapfl said. “NativState offers an opportunity for landowners in the region who are trying to maintain family woodlands by accessing carbon finance.”
NativState has registered 10 other projects for verification with ACR, and it now has more than 200,000 of net forested acres across “the heart of a thriving U.S. timber industry,” the release said, “thus creating high value through its additionality and commitment to integrity.”
The company hopes to “help small landowners optimize forest management and conserve their acres for generations to come,” it said.
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