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Forest Carbon is suporting the largest new productive woodland to be planted in England in the past 25 years. The project, near Wooler in Northumberland, will cover over 800 acres, comprise over 600,000 trees and capture over 90,000tonnes of CO2. The forest will be managed under the continuous cover method, meaning selctive thinning will lead to an all age forest with no clear-felling.

Ireland’s targets for afforestation have received a boost thanks to a new intervention by Microsoft, working with Natural Capital Partners and Forest Carbon. The programme will enable the planting of trees on 137 hectares of land over the next two years. Ireland is one of Europe’s least forested countries and the programme will make an important contribution to the country’s native woodland creation goals – targets which are not currently being met. The newly created forests will also sequester ...

Throughout 2015 Forest Carbon’s Steve Prior was working with academic Andrew Moxey on a project for Defra developing financial models to assess the efficacy of peatland restoration for climate change mitigation. The final report, which also contains chapters by others on the contribution peatland makes to the national natural capital account, and metrics for estimating the carbon savings from restored peat, was published by Defra on 19th January. One of the key objectives of the research was to

Despite the many benefits UK woodlands bring to the UK – including flood amelioration, carbon dioxide sequestration, improvements in health and well-being, wildlife habitat, and river quality improvement - one thing stands in the way of much more substantial private sector carbon investment in the green infrastructure of our country: the non-offset status of Woodland Carbon Code credits.

In a year with record numbers of entries Forest Carbon was 'Highly Commended' in the carbon management category at the annual Sustainability Leaders Awards held in London on 21st November. Forest Carbon finished behind only the winner, supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, whilst the other category finalists were: Tesco; Carbon Clear with Japan Tobacco International; SC Johnson; and Schneider Electric. The judging panel was headed by Lord Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency.

The Woodland Carbon Code credit registry was launched at an event held at Markit's London offices on Monday 15th July. The registry will enhance transparency and accountability in the trade of credits arising from Woodland Carbon Code (WCC) certified projects. The registry will track the ownership of credits, and record when they have been "used" by companies or individuals as part of their carbon mitigation programmes.

Forest Carbon's Steve Prior interviewed for Climate North East

I spent the last week of January in Berlin, sharing ideas with scientists and policy-makers from the UK, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and elsewhere. It was all about our peatlands: For the three days there were about forty of us all working on the next draft of Germany’s MoorFutures standard as well as the development of a possible UK Peatland Carbon Code. I gained the impression that both the UK and the German codes are well on their way to being credible carbon crediting mechanism

The Woodland Carbon Code, a voluntary UK standard which ensures that ‘carbon forestry’ projects really do deliver the carbon benefits they claim, passed its first anniversary on 27th July 2012, having chalked up an impressive number of achievements.