FAQ

Offset Purchasers

• For more information about purchasing ERA Carbon Offsets click here
  

Landowners

• What is a degraded ecosystem?
  • A degraded ecosystem is described as an area of land that has been impacted by some disturbance, such as agriculture, logging, or urban development, which has not been restored to its original functional state, either naturally or through implementation of a restoration prescription.
    
• Is it just about planting trees or are there other restoration strategies being used?
  • Tree planting is just one aspect of ERA's restoration program, which includes "grubbing" (the removal of roots and stumps), invasive species removal, and ongoing maintenance, tree replacement, and monitoring.
    
• What is additionality, and do ERA projects qualify?
  • In the climate change lexicon, "additionality" simply refers to an undertaking or emission reduction or removal that has occurred beyond "business as usual", in other words, an action that provides a benefit that is additional to what would have happened anyway. ERA projects are truly "additional" as ERA programming provides resourcing for restoration work and benefits that are not otherwise planned. In contrast, a commercial forest planted for future harvest, provides no "additional" CO2 removal benefits, and those benefits that might occur subsequently begin to be lost when the forest is harvested.
    
• Can't I just plant some trees myself?
  • Yes you can! However, to remove significant tonnages of CO2 from the atmosphere, larger programs applying professional treatments and having adequate resourcing and follow-up yield the greatest climate mitigation benefits. As well, the benefits will be measurable and predictable.
    
• How can you generate carbon credits through restoration?
  • The amount of carbon a degraded ecosystem sequesters can be increased by restoring the ecosystem to its original state. This can be done by implementing a "prescription" that identifies the appropriate mix of plant species for each specific site. By re-establishing the appropriate species composition and densities, photosynthesis rates increase dramatically.
    
• How do you determine the amount of additional carbon that a restored site will sequester, and b) how do you know it doesn't just go back into the atmosphere?
  • a) The amount of carbon a site can sequester is determined by gathering extensive data from healthy ecosystem templates of the same type as the area to be treated. This data is used as an input sto state-of-the-art models which are capable of predicting carbon sequestration in forest biomass to a high level of precision. b) The storage of carbon in a healthy restored forest ecosystem is secure, so long as the forest does not experience a fire. To mitigate this, potential coastal, riparian, and other low-risk zones which have minimal risk of fire are preferred sites. In fact, restorations can be designed to reduce the risk of fires in the urban interface. Finally, insurance or reserves may be employed to address the potential of a catastrophic event, such as a fire.
    
• What rights is a land management agency or landowner giving ERA in return for restoring a site and for how long?
  • The land management agency or landowner is granting ERA the rights to the environmental benefits, including sequestered carbon, that occur as a result of the restoration that ERA will undertake, at no cost to the government/agency/community. These values would not occur without the restoration. The fact that they have potential value means that ERA can undertake the restoration. For this work to work in a commercial sense, the term has to be extensive, as the benefits must be long-lived to have value. ERA recommends a proxy for the biological life of a restored system to be 80-100 years.
    
• What resources (staff, money, equipment etc), if any, would a land management agency or landowner have to dedicate to a site restoration project either initially or in the future?
  • Under the agreements ERA has prepared, the costs would be negligible. In fact, ERA will take responsibility for placing a project manager on-site as the project is implemented and will contract to have maintenance provided at no cost over an agreed upon term.
    
• Would offsets generated on crown land be sold publicly?
  • No. Any offsets generated by work on crown land will only be sold to government entities through the Pacific Carbon Trust.
    
• If work is required on a restored site over time (eg. 10 years) and ERA is no longer in operation, how will it get done?
  • Contractual arrangements, trusts and other mechanisms agreeable to the government/ agency/ municipality will ensure that the financial resources required to undertake the work will be secured, and secure.
    
• Why would a private corporation be interested in funding a restoration project if they are not going to subsequently own the carbon credits for trading purposes?
  • The private corporations ERA is working with are not interested in these projects to secure carbon-trading. They are ethical, pro-active corporations that wish to demonstrate sustainability and differentiate themselves within the marketplace based on their environmental and social activities.