Forest Owners' Association Says Officials 'Missed Opportunity'
- Published: October 14, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC | The National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) called on the Senate to fully recognize the role of U.S. forests in meeting climate policy goals, offering specific comments on Senators Barbara Boxer’s and John Kerry’s draft legislation.
“This bill misses an opportunity to take immediate and full advantage of the carbon offsets private, working forests can provide," says David P. Tenny, President and CEO of NAFO. "Our nation’s forests remove enough carbon from the atmosphere each year to offset 10 percent of all industrial emissions, and 84 percent of the carbon removed by all land uses comes from forests.
“Private working forests should be our front line for reducing GHGs," Tenny continues. "The fact that responsibly managed forests play a critical role in removing carbon from the atmosphere is beyond dispute both domestically and internationally. Congress must acknowledge this in legislation and allow for vibrant markets that will tap the full potential of these forests.”
NAFO outlined several missed opportunities in the Boxer-Kerry bill:
- The legislation does not immediately recognize forest management and forest products as eligible offset projects.
- Lengthy timeframes for putting forestry offset projects in place diminish their use in the marketplace.
- The U.S. Department of Agriculture is not given a primary role in developing and administering the rules for forest offsets in spite of their expertise.
- Forestry offsets are required to meet special criteria not required of any other project type.
- Definitions applied to forestry are complex and impractical.
