Restoring Healthy Ecosystems with Forest Based Carbon Removals and ARR

Across the globe, land degradation has reached alarming levels. Once-vibrant ecosystems now struggle to support biodiversity, store carbon, and sustain human communities. Restoring these landscapes is not only an environmental imperative but also a socio-economic one.

Degraded landscapes refer to areas of land that have been significantly altered or damaged due to numerous factors, leading to a reduction in their ability to provide ecosystem services. Degraded landscapes are often a shell of their former selves when it comes to biodiversity, carbon storage, and productive potential.

It is estimated that today 40% of earth’s land is degraded, while concerning, many of the lands without carbon finance will remain or continue to be further degraded.

Restoring degraded landscapes is crucial for improving ecosystem resilience, enhancing biodiversity, and supporting sustainable development. However, the world has been limited in their ability to undertake restoration programs, especially in the global south by a lack of financial capital to undertake restoration.

The voluntary carbon market (VCM) is undergoing a transition period from VCM 1.0 to VCM 2.0, in which at the forefront is the switch in demand from reductions to removals. This recent increase in demand has provided the keys to unlock the capital required to restore degraded landscapes through carbon finance. 

Throughout this blog post we will focus on restoring landscapes through Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation (ARR) projects.

Restoration and Design Principles: Ensuring Quality

Successful and high-quality ARR projects display two core attributes, being additional and permanent. EP Carbon helps projects design projects that are both additional and permanent, through the following design principles.

Additional

Like all carbon projects, the most basic pillar to ensure quality from ARR projects is that the activity is additional, or in simple terms the action would not have been undertaken without carbon finance.

EP Carbon provides projects with an in-depth assessment of additionality to ensure that projects are real and provide the claimed climate benefits. To be determined additional, EP Carbon requires projects to pass our rigorous assessment of additionality by demonstrating that projects meet the following requirements:

• The project is not a common practice: EP Carbon uses remote sensing analysis to assess parcels surrounding potential ARR projects to assess if the proposed project activity is actively being undertaken in the project region.
• The project requires carbon finance for financial sustainability: EP Carbon through our Financial assessment of projects ensures that projects require carbon finance to be financially sustainable. This is especially important when projects employ alternative revenue streams such as timber harvesting or agricultural commodities from agroforestry systems.
• Clear barriers to restoration: EP Carbon assess that all ARR projects have a clear insurmountable barrier to restoration.

Permanent

Ensuring that projects are permanent is paramount for the integrity of ARR projects and projects must be designed for the long term, with risk mitigation in mind. EP Carbon designs projects that are meant to last and with our project partners we design projects with the following attributes:

• Native Species Restoration: EP Carbon believes that high-quality ARR projects restore species that are native and adapted to the project area, mix-species restoration is preferred to mitigate risks.
• Community centered: Successful ARR projects built to last need to be community centered and designed in a way that benefits both the climate and communities. Local communities need to be at the center of planning and decision making, ensuring that restoration approaches are beneficial to both the climate, and that restoration works for the community are not against.
• Secure and undisputed land tenure: Legal agreements and strong land tenure are critical in ensuring that trees are restored and remain protected beyond the life of the carbon project.
• Risk Identification and Mitigation Planning: EP Carbon needs an extensive risk assessment to identify all project risks and effective mitigation plans.
• Adaptive Management Planning: EP Carbon requires projects in the design phase to create detailed and flexible management plans that outline monitoring and implementation of the project

Scaling ARR Pojects and Supply

Although ARR projects can be limited in their ability to supply the market, $8 billion has been committed to NBS carbon removals signifying a growing need in the market. With rising demand and commitments to NBS carbon removals, only 5% of issued nature-based credits have been from removals, signifying that growing demand will greatly exceed the supply. 

ARR projects face barriers that limit the supply, which there is two that can be resolved:

1. High upfront costs and long payback periods: Forest restoration is expensive, and trees take time to grow requiring large capital requirements with returns not being realized for up to decades.
2. Secure land suitable for restoration: Much of degraded lands have complex land use histories and complicated land tenures, suitable land is often being used for alternative land uses.

EP Carbon has been helping recently develop projects that aim to address these barriers to supply using project designs to help scale supply:

Harnessing Nature: Nature is a powerful force which often needs help, like many of us. Often landscapes are capable, and often time can be more successful, being restored naturally. Assisted natural regeneration harnesses the power of nature, with a helping hand allowing for a cost-effective way to naturally restore landscapes.

Examples of Assisted Natural Regeneration projects EP Carbon is working on:

• Protecting natural regeneration being continuously burned through fire breaks and fire monitoring systems.
• Site preparation to create suitable seed beds for local seeds to germinate within.
• Livestock management systems to allow over-grazed saplings to be recruited into mature trees

Agroforestry: Employing agroforestry systems provides projects with an alternative income stream that can reduce the long-term capital requirements needed to implement an ARR project. Agroforestry projects also help develop diversified income streams for local communities and small-hold farmers, helping develop the local community and bringing economic stability.

ARR projects also allow for lands to be restored, while still allowing the landowners and communities to maintain their livelihoods and cultural identity. Examples of Agroforestry Projects EP Carbon is working on:

• Plantations of native fruit-producing trees on current cattle pastures: Sustainable commodities are produced from them, and the continued use of the land for livestock growth prevails.
• Creating live fences of trees to protect crops from livestock

Is ARR the Path to a Greener Future?

In the face of widespread land degradation, the imperative to restore healthy ecosystems has never been more pressing. With 40% of the Earth’s land currently degraded, the urgency for effective restoration strategies is clear. Forest-based carbon removals, particularly through Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation (ARR) projects, offer a promising pathway to address this challenge. However, these initiatives’ success hinges on a combination of robust design principles and innovative solutions.

At EP Carbon, we are committed to ensuring that ARR projects meet the highest standards of quality. By focusing on community-centered approaches, secure land tenure, and adaptive management, we aim to create restoration projects that are both effective and sustainable. Our emphasis on using native species and integrating agroforestry and assisted natural regeneration systems demonstrates our dedication to innovative and scalable solutions.

As the voluntary carbon market transitions to prioritize carbon removals, the potential to unlock significant capital for restoration efforts is growing. It is through this evolving market, coupled with thoughtful and well-designed projects, that we can address the pressing issue of degraded landscapes and pave the way for a more resilient and sustainable future.

By investing in and supporting high-quality ARR projects, we are not only restoring landscapes but also contributing to a global effort to combat climate change and foster biodiversity. The path to a healthier planet is within reach, and with continued innovation and commitment, we can turn the tide on land degradation and create thriving ecosystems for generations to come.