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Forestry Carbon Sequestration Offsets


CCX has been a leader and innovator in developing standardized rules for issuing Carbon Financial Instrument® (CFI™) contracts for forest carbon sequestration. Eligible projects on CCX may exist under all four of the mitigation measures outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):

  • Maintaining or increasing forest area: reducing deforestation and degradation
  • Maintaining or increasing forest area: afforestation / reforestation
  • Forest management to increase stand- and landscape-level carbon density
  • Increasing off-site carbon stocks in wood products and enhancing product and fuel substitution

All Sustainably Managed Forest Offset Projects and Afforestation/Reforestation Projects that do not utilize the CCX carbon accumulation tables must obtain project approval of the CCX Forestry Committee. Project Proponents must complete a CCX Project Implementation Document (PID) for all proposed Forestry Carbon Sequestration Offset Projects. Completed CCX PIDs must be submitted to either your offsets account representative or to offsets(at)theccx.com.


CCX Forestry Carbon Sequestration Offset Project Categories


  • Afforestation/Reforestation: the planting of new forests on lands, which historically, have not contained forests.

    Afforestation/Reforestation projects are eligible to earn CCX offsets for direct human-induced conversion of non-forested or degraded area into a forested region. These acts have greenhouse gas sequestration benefits through increases in live tree biomass and soil organic carbon. CCX landowners have the option of quantifying these sequestration rates through carbon accumulation tables, or through measurement and growth and yield models.

    Basic Specifications for Afforestation/Reforestation Projects:
    • The project activity involves afforestation/reforestation on or after January 1, 2003 on unforested or degraded land. 
    • Eligible afforestation activity should not involve removal of tree biomass, including harvesting or thinning, during the CCX market period.
    • Landowners must sign a contract with their aggregators attesting that the land will be maintained as forest for at least 15 years from the date of enrollment in CCX. 
    • Projects in the contiguous United States may quantify sequestered carbon using CCX carbon accumulation tables. 

  • Sustainably Managed Forest Projects: projects that sustainably manage forests such that their growth in carbon stocks exceeds their harvest.

    Sustainable forest management activities may lead to additional forest carbon stocks by planting after harvest or natural disturbances, engaging in harvest systems that maintain partial forest cover, reducing soil erosion or avoiding destructive harvesting practices. CCX rules require that landowners have certification for sustainable management and provide incentives for robust, stringent measurement and inventory techniques.

    Basic Specifications for Managed Forest Projects:

    • Eligible projects may earn offsets for the additional net carbon sequestered in their forest stocks from the previous year (i.e., carbon sequestered from additional forest growth less carbon lost due to harvesting activities). 
    • Forest owners must provide evidence that all of their forest holdings are sustainably managed through certification from agencies or schemes endorsed by the PEFC Council or through other certification schemes that have been approved by the CCX Committee on Forestry.
    • Projects must quantify sequestered carbon either using a growth-and-yield model or by calculating inventory on an annual basis. 
    • The CCX Committee on Forestry must review and approve of all projects on a case-by-case basis. 
    • Long-Lived Wood Products: harvested wood that has existed for long period of time, in which it has served as a carbon sink.

      Long-lived wood products have appreciable carbon mitigation benefits by displacing fossil-fuel intensive construction materials and also though the carbon storage in durable wood products that have the potential to retain carbon for centuries (such as houses and furniture). Landowners are eligible to earn offsets from long-lived wood product production provided that the land has certification for sustainable management and that the carbon rights are retained through a sales contract.

      Basic Specifications for Long-Lived Wood Products:
      • Entities may receive offsets for carbon stored in long-lived wood products equal to the fraction of carbon stored in long lived wood products in use and landfills at the end of 100 years. 
      • Offset providers / aggregators must provide evidence that all of their forest holdings from which landowners wish to obtain offsets for carbon stored in long lived wood products are sustainably managed. 



In addition, CCX has developed rules for offset issuance for widely-spaced tree plantings. Please refer to the CCX Offset Project Protocol: Forestry Carbon Sequestration for further information.

Related Documents

    CCX Forest Offsets Case Study: Precious Woods 
Chicago Climate Exchange Project Protocol:
Forestry Carbon Sequestration