Firms Partner to Develop Carbon Offsets From Forests in Arkansas, Missouri

SAN DIEGO - A California firm and a Missouri company are collaborating to develop carbon offsets from more than 300,000 acres of privately owned forest in the Ozarks Mountains of Arkansas and Missouri.

The companies are CE2 Carbon Capital of San Diego, which describes itself as one of the largest investors and owners of U.S. carbon commodities and carbon emissions reduction projects, and Dogwood Carbon Solutions of Columbia, Mo., a developer of agriculture and forestry-based conservation projects.

The Red Fern Project, described in a CE2 news release as one of the first programs of its kind, seeks to help private landowners create new revenue "by implementing sustainable forestry management practices without requiring up-front investment."

CE2 Carbon Capital will fund the launch of the program and give landowners help with forestry management.

"The high-quality offsets generated from Red Fern are expected to be sold over time to companies that purchase carbon offsets to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions," CE2 said. The landowners gain revenue through the monetization of the carbon offset credits.

"We are starting to see the attention shifting towards forestry as a key tool that can reduce carbon emissions in a cost-effective manner," Milo Sjardin, director at New Energy Finance, a market research firm, said in the release. Sjardin sees "significant opportunities for investors" in such forestry-management projects.

"Although working forests have significant potential for carbon offset generation, private landowners may not possess the economies of scale or expertise required to make a project feasible," said Greg Arnold, president of CE2 Carbon Capital.

The Red Fern Project seeks to help private landowners create new revenue "by implementing sustainable forestry management practices without requiring up-front investment."