Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

Activate 1 million acres of forests in Eastern Canada for carbon drawdown through citizen-led climate action and a novel aggregation platform that removes persistent barriers to carbon offset strategies. 

One-third of carbon reductions needed to meet the Paris Agreement can be achieved by protecting and restoring ecosystems. The people and communities most directly connected to these landscapes are key to realizing nature-based climate solutions but are currently underserved. 

We are expanding our proven forest carbon storage strategies to the 80,000 family forest owners who manage 40% of the carbon-dense Wabanaki-Acadian forest, unlocking their potential to achieve globally significant carbon drawdown.

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We are committed to working with rural communities and Indigenous Peoples ‚ communities often left out of conversations of climate change, but at the frontlines of its impacts. There are 80,000 rural citizens across Eastern Canada who collectively care for 40% of the region‚ critically endangered, carbon-dense Wabanaki-Acadian forest (over 12 million acres of forestland). The ACRES project is designed to serve these rural, forest-dependent communities that are the primary stewards of natural resources yet are seldom empowered by policy and outreach efforts. 

Rural family forest owners in the region are at-risk of the negative impacts of climate change to both livelihoods and the forest ecosystems that underpin them. They face multiple obstacles to enacting forest protections that improve climate adaptation, carbon sequestration, and rural economic development. At the same time, this large citizen community is positioned to achieve transformative change by collectively enacting nature-based climate solutions and globally significant carbon drawdown in a way that improves local prosperity and local climate change resilience. 

The ACRES project is empowering under-served communities with access to new income streams and accompanying re-skilling supports for climate-smart forest care. Mobilizing a broad coalition of people in direct climate action is at the heart of a just and equitable green recovery, and this initiative represents a novel solution for replication by forest carbon projects and forest dependent communities globally. 

A key element of Community Forests International‚ ongoing work is building relationships with Indigenous Peoples on issues of re-establishing rights to traditional lands and territories. Climate justice is critical to any effective climate action, and therefore a crosscutting objective of this project is to highlight and amplify Indigenous rights, relationships, and opportunities as they relate to the region‚ forests and to share education and training opportunities with First Nations interested in pursuing forest carbon opportunities. Outreach and training will strengthen understanding and allyship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous forestry practitioners around issues of forest care and climate action, and to diversify approaches to climate action in the private forest sector which is currently dominated by non-Indigenous knowledge and perspectives. 

Forestry in Canada is still largely a male dominated industry. Community Forests International employs women experts in forestry and forest science sectors, and ensures that women are equally represented in all training materials, research, and whenever possible, in professional contracts. 

This project reflects changing values within the sector as they relate to business-as-usual forestry methods, and we recognize that social change and prioritizing underrepresented groups goes hand-in-hand with these transitions.

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