 Project Analysis
Agriculture and forestry activities that sequester carbon and reduce emissions
of other greenhouse gases (GHGs) can be carried out through projects, which
are typically discrete activities with clearly defined geographic boundaries,
timeframes, and institutional frameworks.
The Practices section of the Web site describes
common agricultural and forestry activities that sequester carbon and
reduce
other GHGs. These same activities (e.g., tree planting, forest preservation,
conservation tillage on croplands) may also be carried out as projects.
This section of the Web site describes key issues associated with quantifying
the GHG benefits of agricultural and forestry projects, especially
when
these projects are used as GHG offsets (i.e.,
used to offset another entity's GHG emissions). These key issues are:
- Establishing baselines to set some standard
against which the GHG benefits of the project can be evaluated (e.g.,
often the level of GHG emissions or carbon sequestration that would
occur in the absence of project implementation).
- Identifying leakage for the unanticipated
decrease or increase in GHG benefits outside of the project's accounting
boundary as a result of project activities.
- Addressing duration (also referred to
as reversibility or permanence) to account for the fact that the benefits
of carbon sequestration in agriculture and forestry are partially or
completely reversible.
- Monitoring and verifying GHG benefits
to ensure that a forestry or agricultural project is achieving real
and credible results.
- Transaction costs of assembling, quantifying,
recording and verifying the GHG offset benefits of the project.
The key U.S. Government policy process that is developing guidance for
the voluntary reporting of GHG reductions through projects is the Enhancement
of the Department of Energy's 1605(b) Voluntary Registry. 
Under this 1605(b) process, USDA
is revising the voluntary guidelines for the reporting of agricultural
and forestry sequestration and other GHG mitigation projects.
Another process that is considering the issues related to carbon sequestration
projects is the GHG
Protocol Initiative for Project GHG Accounting and Reporting,
co-convened by World Resources Institute and World Business Council for
Sustainable Development. This Initiative is a multi-stakeholder process
aiming to develop voluntary guidance for not only agricultural and
forestry projects, but for GHG mitigation projects in all sectors of
the economy.
In addition, many organizations are active in establishing
and assessing agricultural and forestry projects as GHG offsets. Some
of these organizations are listed below.
Note: All the below links will take you outside the
EPA Web site.
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