We are one of the UK’s most established and experienced woodland and peatland project developers; between 2006 and 2022, we were responsible for 4% of all woodland creation in the UK. We’ve been around since before a standard to regulate the sale of carbon credits even existed… So we helped to develop one (read more on ‘Our story’). 

This experience has brought with it a deep understanding of what it is that businesses and land managers want and need to make UK woodland creation and peatland restoration projects happen. 

To buyers, we offer peace of mind. You can trust that our guidance will lead you to credits that are high-quality, and aligned with your strategic objectives. 

Land managers need flexibility and someone who understands the challenges and complexities involved in land use change and managing a woodland/peatland. To ease one of these major challenges, we offer flexible finance options, including payment at the outset of a project (often before we have a buyer lined up) to enable projects to get off of (or into!) the ground. We also take the admin off of your hands – you have plenty going on already!

We pioneered the first carbon-financed woodlands and peatlands in the UK. We helped to develop both the Woodland Carbon Code and the Peatland Code, standards which legitimise the market for woodland and peatland carbon in the UK. We remain on the frontline of these markets and continue to push for evolution, resilience, integrity, and practicality.

We have 55 years of carbon market industry experience between us. Additionally, across the team, we have experience in agricultural trading, finance, farming, forestry, ground gas analysis, teaching, surveying, property development, and more. To understand more about the breadth of what we advise on, see our services pages including the ‘Project Advice’ page. 

Bespoke, expert guidance as you move through the buying process; ‘buy-in’ support, if you need help educating decision-makers on carbon offsets; a project portfolio that aligns with your brand, your risk appetite and your ESG strategy; comms guidance and support and; ongoing partnership. 

When contributing to our projects, whether UK or overseas, you’ll be supporting nature-based emissions reduction schemes that adhere to one of the leading global or UK accreditation standards. Find out more about the quality assurance mechanisms on our buyers page, here: Forest Carbon | Buying carbon credits | The process 

In the UK we work directly with land managers, helping them to plan their woodland and peatland projects, to get them validated through the Woodland Carbon Code or Peatland Code, and to connect them with buyers like yourselves. When we say our projects are ‘Forest Carbon assured’, it’s because we’ve played a direct role in getting them into the ground.

Unlike our UK projects, we do not have a direct hand in the development of the projects we retail from overseas. However, we ensure we carefully select the projects we list by working with trusted, long-standing partners. All projects are certified under recognised high-quality standards, such as Plan Vivo, VCS (Verra) and Gold Standard, following and adhering to core principles to ensure the claims they’re making.

All project documentation, including PDDs, carbon calculations, and verification documents are publicly available on their relevant registries.

We continually look to improve how we assess the projects we offer, including using third-party experts to carry out analysis, due diligence and vetting.

Recent research shows that companies voluntarily buying carbon credits are around 1.8 times more likely to be decarbonising year-on-year than non-credit purchasing peers. Voluntary carbon buyers are also 3.4 times more likely to have an approved science-based climate target and are 3 times more likely to include Scope 3 Emissions in their climate target, according to Ecosystem Marketplace.

The term ‘carbon neutral’ emerged from the Kyoto Protocol (1997), after market mechanisms like the voluntary carbon market were created to encourage countries and companies to reduce their carbon emissions. ‘Carbon neutral’ means that a balancing number of carbon avoidance/reduction credits have been bought to ‘neutralise’ a country or company’s carbon footprint. If Company X has a footprint of 100 tCO2e, then to be carbon neutral, it must purchase 100 tCO2e of verified ex-post credits that reduce carbon dioxide equivalent from elsewhere. 

It’s important to note that to claim carbon neutrality for operational emissions, an organisation only needs to cover its scope 1 and 2 emissions. Scope 3 is only encouraged. 

Whilst supporting projects that uplift biodiversity and store or avoid carbon is always a good thing, carbon neutrality can be damaging if the organisation claiming it uses it as an excuse to ignore/avoid in-house reduction. Offsets should always be paired with a science-based strategy for reduction at the source. 

‘Carbon neutral’ is a term that’s increasingly recognised by the mainstream public, and can be useful to draw attention to your organisation’s climate action. However, public climate literacy is maturing so we don’t recommend advertising carbon neutrality alone. Make sure you communicate what else you are doing to reduce emissions in-house and support nature’s comeback.

Currently, this means that organisations should develop and execute strategies that reduce emissions along scopes 1 - 3. Carbon credits can (and should, we believe) be used to compensate for residual, unavoidable, or hard-to-abate emissions or as part of a Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM) strategy. BVCM is anything that goes above and beyond the work you’re doing to abate scopes 1 - 3. But value chain emissions reductions must be prioritized. 

‘Ex-ante’ and ‘ex-post’ are terms used to describe a type of carbon credit based on whether or not the carbon sequestration/avoidance has already happened. If you buy ex-ante credits, you are buying future carbon savings, e.g. sequestration from trees in 50 years. It’s a promise that your investment now will turn into carbon savings in the future. If you buy ex-post credits (think ‘past’), carbon sequestration/avoidance has already occurred. Woodland Carbon Units (WCUs) and Peatland Carbon Units (PCUs) are ex-post credits. Pending Issuance Units (PIUs) are ex-ante credits. 

Certification and ongoing verification costs can be prohibitive for smaller woodlands. Additionally, some land managers don’t want to sell carbon from their woodland, which again makes certification cost-prohibitive.

To unblock these projects, so that more woodlands can be planted, we’ve created this sponsorship model. As there are a lot of smaller plots of land in areas that would be ideal for woodland in the UK, we believe this model holds potential for real impact. To understand more about sponsorship and how we monitor these woodlands, read this blog.

In the UK, there are extremely ambitious targets for woodland creation and these targets will not be met by large blocks of continuous woodland alone. There is a huge opportunity for woodland creation on smaller plots of land in less productive areas.

Cumulatively these smaller woodlands would make a big difference to the amount of land covered by trees, and the enormous amount of co-benefits their presence provides. Our back-of-the-envelope calculations estimate that in the past year alone, we could have facilitated the planting of well over 53,000 extra UK trees (48 ha) if we had our sponsorship offering in place.

Sponsorship is right for any business that wants to give something back to nature in the UK, particularly if you aren’t concerned about carbon credits.

If you’re interested in sponsorship, please reach out to us via our contact form and a member of the Forest Carbon team will be in touch shortly. They will be able to answer any questions you may have about this type of investment.

You will be able to make sponsorship claims. You will be able to say something like ‘We have funded a 4ha riparian woodland in The Scottish Borders which is providing much-needed shade to freshwater pearl mussels and Atlantic salmon populations, and helping local communities by mitigating the effects of flooding.”

Tell your audience that you are supporting innovative nature projects that wouldn’t otherwise have gone ahead without you. You will be performing a crucial role in helping these particular types of woodlands go ahead; woodlands which were specifically chosen by Forest Carbon for the co-benefits they will provide.

You will not be able to make carbon neutral or net zero claims.

Quality assurance is essential in our field; no organisation wants to be caught in a greenwashing scandal, and we certainly don’t want to waste valuable nature funding. Drawing on the team's combined 55 years of experience, we have developed a set of guidelines to ensure these projects meet their impact objectives. These guidelines mirror the standards and processes used by respected accreditation standards like the Woodland Carbon Code and the Peatland Code. Please read more about our sponsorship quality assurance measures here.

The Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code allow projects of all sizes. However, there are costs associated with a project’s validation and verification. As smaller projects (<2ha) generate fewer carbon credits, in some situations this can lead to them making an overall loss, as the income from carbon may fall short of the administrative costs.

At Forest Carbon we are able to group together projects for validation and verification, driving down the costs of validation and verification. So, if you are thinking about creating a small woodland please get in touch and we can discuss options with you!

It is up to land managers to decide the composition and long-term management plans for their projects, though there will be carbon implications if, for instance, a woodland is thinned or clear-felled within the contract duration.

When committing to a carbon contract, land managers agree to manage their project according to the plan that they set out at the start of the process (i.e. before planting).

Yes. Both Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code projects have a minimum duration of 30 years, and a maximum duration of 100. It is up to the land manager to decide what contract length to commit to, though most choose durations of between 35 - 65 years.

The easiest way to determine your eligibility or apply for carbon funding is to get in touch with us – we’ll send you our application form and get the process started!

If you already have a forest manager, they can put in the application on your behalf. We work closely with forest managers across the UK to ensure carbon finance is accessible to as many woodland creation projects as possible.

There are many factors that influence the claimable sequestration of a woodland – i.e. the carbon credits it will generate. These factors include species mix, fast growing conifers will sequester carbon more quickly, but they also include management regime, ground preparation, and project duration.

Pending Issuance Units (PIUs) are issued once the project has been validated with the Woodland Carbon Code or Peatland code. For woodlands a PIU represents an emissions removal: one tonne of CO₂ that will be sequestered by the woodland as it grows. For peatlands a PIU represents emissions avoidance: one tonne of CO₂ that would otherwise have been emitted. 

At validation PIUs are issued for the whole project lifetime.

Woodland Carbon Units (WCUs) and Peatland Carbon Units (PCUs) represent verified carbon units. At each verification a number of PIUs are converted to WCUs/PCUs. If the project has over- or underperformed the number of verified units issued will be different to the PIUs in the vintage.

As soon as possible! For a preliminary assessment of the additionality & carbon potential of your project, we will ask for an outline cashflow, the intended species mix and planned management regime.

From 30th June 2021 projects need to register with the Woodland Carbon Code before planting starts. Projects planted in the 2020/21 season can still be registered until that time. 

This is why we recommend you reach out as early as possible in the planning process, and get in touch with us at least one month before planting starts. 

You can contact us here.

When you sell your carbon through Forest Carbon, we will undertake registration and validation of the project with the Woodland Carbon Code, marketing and sale of the carbon, and ongoing verifications required under Woodland Carbon Code rules. We also manage relationships with the buyers of the carbon, leaving you to focus managing (and enjoying) your new woodland.

We offer flexible payment structures to meet the requirements of land managers across the UK.