Forests help fight climate change
Let’s start with the basics: carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas which holds in heat from the Sun and maintains the protective blanket that is Earth’s atmosphere. So, CO2 is good – but only up to a point.
Accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – from the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation – lead to a heating of the earth’s surface. This in turn leads to impacts such as shifting seasons, rising sea-levels, disappearing Arctic sea-ice and more intense heat waves. Global warming dramatically disrupts some of life’s essential requirements for health: water, air and food.
As trees grow, they take in CO2 from the air and store it in leaves, roots, branches, trunks, soil, and woody debris through a process known as “carbon sequestration.” In this way, trees play an important role in the global carbon cycle, regulating Earth’s climate and moderating the effects of global climate change.
Planting and preserving forests is one of the simplest and most efficient ways of removing excess CO2 from the atmosphere.
Carbon Absorption
After the oceans, forests are the second largest carbon sink on the planet.
Preservation Is Key
It’s important to not only plant new trees but to keep existing forests standing.
Need to Act Now
We have to ensure that we are leaving a healthier planet for future generations to come.
Added Benefits
Local communities, the native soil and wildlife benefit for many years down the road.
High-standard Carbon Offsetting
Reforestation and the protection of remaining forests are vital for climate change mitigation. Nevertheless, forestry projects have a number of characteristics that make them ill-suited for use as carbon offsets.
Permanence
There is a risk that forest carbon will not be stored permanently. CO2 sequestered by trees can be re-released into the atmosphere due to harvesting, fire, or disease. High-quality projects are monitored for decades after the last year of offset credit issuance.
Co-Benefits
Forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services and moderate water flow rates. Forests provide habitat for many plants and animal species and provide livelihoods for many people.
Protecting Existing Forests
Most beneficial are projects that maximize both carbon storage and carbon uptake by protecting carbon-rich existing forests but allowing selective, well-managed harvesting to increase carbon uptake of young trees.
Exemplary bio-sequestration projects can address several global problems: they can sequester and store carbon, protect watersheds, offer economic opportunities for the local population, and conserve or restore biodiversity.
Green Trees Planet focuses only on high-quality, third-party verified, audited and certified carbon offset projects. Investors (NFT holders) know the exact amount of carbon removed by their trees and the exact amount of Carbon Credit benefits they are eligible to receive each year.