AFF Leading Efforts for Forest-Climate Coalition
All coalition members agree that U.S. forests, particularly private forests and the harvested wood products from these forests should play a significant role in reducing carbon emissions in the atmosphere.
The Coalition agrees that the American Power Act must be an offset market for U.S. forests and harvested wood products, other financial incentives for landowners who cannot participate in these markets, and resources to mitigate the impacts of climate change on U.S. forests.
AFF, representing the interests of family forest landowners in this coalition, is working hard to ensure that climate legislation includes new market opportunities and other financial incentives for family forest owners—who own most of the private forests in the U.S. and will benefit from new financial incentives for sustainable forest management.
The Kerry-Lieberman, American Power Act draft legislation released last week, includes some of these provisions but falls short in other areas according to AFF president & CEO Tom Martin.
In particular, the legislation fails to set aside funding for the Carbon Conservation Program, which provides incentives for landowners who can’t or don’t wish to participate in offset markets but still have a lot of carbon sequestration and storage opportunities on their land. 40 forest and conservation organizations, led by AFF and TPL, recently sent a letter to Congress calling for this funding. AFF and TPL have also used other means, including advertising in Capitol Hill publications, to get the word out on this program and the needed funding.
Join our Grassroots Action Network at www.familyforestaction.org to keep informed on these issues important to family forest owners.
