Forest Protocols

The Forest Protocols consist of three protocols. The Forest Sector Protocol (FSP) measures carbon from an entire forestland entity, while the Forest Project Protocol (FPP) measures carbon from a defined geographic area within a forest. The Forest Certification Protocol is for third party certifiers for use in evaluation proposals from landowners.

There are three Forest Project types under the FPP. They are:

• Conservation-based Forest Management:
  Forest projects that are based on the commercial or noncommercial harvest and regeneration of native trees and emplys natural forest management practices.
  
• Reforestation:
  Forest projects that are based on the restoration of native tree cover on lands that were previously forested, but have been out of tree cover for a minimum of ten years.
  
• Conservation:
  Forest projects that are based on specific actions to prevent the conversion of native forests to a non-forest use, such as agriculture or other commercial development.

There are The Forest Conservation Protocol (FCP) quantifies carbon “in the path of development.” For example more carbon will be sequestered in a forest than land converted to non-forest uses. If forestland owners are interested in conserving their land instead of developing it they are can receive carbon credit.

For this LaTour project we will be following the FPP. The goal of the Forest Project Protocol (FPP) is a planned set of activities to remove, reduce or prevent CO2 emissions in the atmosphere by conserving and/or increasing on-site forest carbon stocks in a defined geographic area. The forest project reporting is more detailed than entity-wide reporting. Project-level reporting on its own can be misleading for only reporting a project may result in only a partial picture of an entity’s emissions footprint. Therefore forest entity emissions must be reported along with the project. The FPP focuses on forest carbon stocks and biological CO2 emissions – not other GHGs.