Family Forest Blog
September 17, 2025
Carbon Market Stakeholders Launch Feasibility Study, Advisory Group on New Permanence Framework
The American Forest Foundation announced today the launch of their partnership with carbon insurance specialist Kita to conduct a design and feasibility study for a new system-wide approach to addressing permanence for carbon markets.
September 5, 2025
What is the Permanence Trust? A Look at a New Solution for Nature
The American Forest Foundation has created an innovative new approach that aims to fill all the core functionalities necessary for permanence: The Permanence Trust. This approach frames non-permanence as a risk to be managed, strengthens market-wide definitions and risk management strategies, and provides a framework that allows NCS credits and other carbon credit types (like geologic storage) to be managed together, increasing overall market confidence and credibility.
August 13, 2025
First Improved Forest Management Methodology Designed for Family Forests Recognized by Global Body for High Integrity
Today, The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (IC-VCM) recognized the Verra Methodology for Improved Forest Management (IFM) Using Dynamic Matched Baselines (VM0045) with the globally-recognized Core Carbon Principles (CCP) label.
November 19, 2024
Family Forest Carbon Program Receives BBBe Rating from Carbon Ratings Agency
This week, the American Forest Foundation (AFF), a nonprofit organization that empowers family forest owners to create meaningful conservation impact, announced its receival of a ‘BBBe’ rating of its improved forest management (IFM) practices by carbon ratings agency BeZero – the highest of the agency’s public ratings of this project type in the United States.
November 12, 2024
New White Paper Sets Bar for Quality in Forest Carbon Projects
This week, the American Forest Foundation, a nonprofit organization that empowers family forest owners to create meaningful conservation impact, released its latest white paper, “Catalyzing Forest Carbon Project Quality: Addressing Issues of Integrity in Improved Forest Management Carbon Projects." The paper discusses the common challenges that IFM projects face in the voluntary carbon market and details four key elements the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) focuses on to ensure high quality: additionality, permanence, leakage, and social integrity.
October 29, 2024
Branching Across the Aisle: How Building a Voluntary Carbon Market Benefits Rural Communities & The Planet
With the presidential election right around the corner, our television screens and social media feeds are filled with divisive messages and rhetoric. However, in a time where finding common ground seems nearly impossible, there is at least one thing that Americans on both sides of the aisle support: our forests.
October 15, 2024
American Forest Foundation to Launch First U.S. Nature-Based Carbon Credit Auction in Early 2025
The American Forest Foundation Carbon Auction — the first of its kind for a U.S. nature-based carbon project — will offer buyers a transparent and streamlined way to secure high-quality carbon credits while supporting rural communities and family forest owners.
October 15, 2024
A New Way to Buy Carbon Credits: The American Forest Foundation Carbon Auction
We believe there is a better way to buy carbon credits – a way to create contracts which more directly tie buyers and landowners to one another as true partners in a great enterprise. A way which reduces the friction, opacity and transaction costs of the current market.
August 13, 2024
The Forest Landowner Support Program: An Opportunity to Advance Conservation for Everyone
Through FLS, states can partner with projects like the Family Forest Carbon Program to unlock landowners’ access to the voluntary carbon market, opening the door to public and private investment in their forests and local economies.
July 30, 2024
Statement: Through SBTi or Not, Corporations Must Maximize Climate Action Now
We were hoping SBTi would signal to corporations, family forest owners, and the countless others ready to activate the power of forests and nature to generate carbon credits to reduce emissions in this decade. Unfortunately, SBTi’s findings today did not provide the clear guidance we need.
June 20, 2024
Open Letter to SBTi: Carbon Credit Use for Scope 3 Emissions Will Catalyze Climate Impact
“The facts are clear: in order to avoid the impacts of climate change, we need to invest in nature-based solutions now.”
June 17, 2024
Unlocking the Power of Rural America: The Rural Forest Markets Act
The fast-growing voluntary carbon market can unlock the potential for family forest owners to create meaningful impact, but their goals are often out of reach.
June 11, 2024
Statement: Senate Republican Farm Bill Framework Supports Rural America
We know that Rural Americans – especially rural landowners – play a critical role in achieving our country’s climate and conservation goals.
May 30, 2024
ANALYSIS: Growing Pains of a Burgeoning Market
As it goes with any emerging market, trends continue to shift and evolve within the voluntary carbon market.