FCCP travels to Brazil as a part of the ACT-AT partnership
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EmailFCCP Director Chad Papa traveled to Curitiba, Brazil, as a part of the Augmenting Climate Transition across the Atlantic Transect research partnership.
Curitiba, Brazil – The Michigan State University Forest Carbon and Climate Program (FCCP) has been an integral member of the Augmenting Climate Transition across the Atlantic Transect (ACT-AT) research partnership led by Dr. Melissa Kreye, associate professor and extension specialist, at Pennsylvania State University. This partnership aims to advance the development of high-integrity, socially responsible forest carbon offset projects on non-industrial forest lands in the United States, Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina across an Atlantic seaboard transect, using a co-design approach with stakeholders to inform new carbon mitigation standards and engagement strategies.
Forest-based carbon offset projects, which are a subset of larger voluntary carbon markets, have faced increased scrutiny recently that has led to both a decrease in the volume of transactions and the value of carbon credits globally. These criticisms have encouraged widespread efforts to address current pitfalls and challenges with generating high-integrity carbon credits. The goal of this project is to use an integrated research-extension approach to explore opportunities and barriers to installing high-integrity, socially responsible forest carbon offset projects on non-industrial forest lands, learning from key insights spanning national borders.
During the trip to Curitiba, Brazil, the research teams visited landowners in the Atlantic rainforest and native araucaria forests in the region of Parana. The team also had the opportunity to visit with municipal and state government officials to learn about regulatory structures and policies driving increased interest in forest-based carbon offsets. Lastly, the team visited Universidade Federal do Parana (UFPR) research sites and various city parks and gardens to learn more about holistic approaches to address climate challenges across the region.
The partnership led by researchers at Pennsylvania State University includes key personnel at MSU FCCP, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Universidad Jorge Tadeo Lozano, GMF Nature Based Solutions, and American Forests. To date, the partnership has conducted research trips to Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil collecting qualitative information to understand challenges to forest management, sustainability goals, and land tenure and assess barriers to engaging in forest-based forest carbon offset projects for non-industrial landowners. Next steps include synthesizing this information for publication and extension resources.
To learn more, visit the project website: https://climate.psu.edu/project/augmenting-climate-transition-across-the-atlantic-transect-extension-driven-solutions-to-implementing-socially-responsible-high-integrity-forest-carbon-offsets/
