Mosaic Forest Management says it is willing to partner with municipalities — including North Cowichan — private landowners and First Nations who are interested in preserving forest lands through the sale of carbon credits.

Mosaic — BC’s biggest holder of private forest lands — announced March 16 it is deferring logging on 40,000 hectares for at least 25 years to pursue the sale of carbon credits.

Eighty percent of those lands are at least 120 years old (half of them true old-growth, older than 250 years) and 20 percent are 40 to 120 years old.

“We are proceeding with this believing we can earn at least as much revenue as from timber harvesting — and we hope it’s more,” chief forester Domenico Iannidinardo told sixmountains.ca in an interview.

Speaking at an April 26 public information session in Duncan, Iannidinardo said the company has worked for years to calculate its carbon footprint certified by the United Kingdom Carbon Trust and then establishing a carbon-credit program certified by Verra.

North Cowichan — which owns the 5,000-hectare Municipal Forest Reserve, also known as the Six Mountains — and others willing to participate in a similar program can save time by teaming up with Mosaic through the same crediting program, he said.
“We are open to partnering” Iannidinardo said. “The more the merrier, in my mind, for quality nature-based carbon credits for coastal B.C.”
Iannidinardo emphasized that the offer to partner is not meant to generate revenue for Mosaic, but to assist others in joining the company’s carbon-credit initiative.

Mosaic says its logging deferral plan will increase carbon storage and avoid future greenhouse gas emissions from logging operations.

The carbon credits will be sold to “reputable organizations” through the BigCoast Forest Climate Initiative — with a portion of the proceeds flowing to the Pacific Salmon Foundation and the Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas Innovation Program.

(https://www.bigcoastforest.com)

North Cowichan is in the midst of two consultations — one with the public, the other with First Nations — on the future of the Municipal Forest Reserve.

The UBC Partnership Group — UBC forestry, 3Green Tree Consulting, and Coastal Douglas-Fir Conservation Partnership — will be presenting forest management options soon for the public’s consideration.

The sale of carbon credits as a way to generate revenue from a standing forest is expected to be part of these options.

The coastal Douglas-fir forest is the most at-risk forest type in BC and overlaps the Municipal Forest Reserve — one reason why carbon credits from the reserve are expected to be more attractive to buyers.

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(sixmountains.ca photo: Mosaic chief forester Domenico Iannidinardo)

— Larry Pynn, April 27, 2022