27 July 2011 - A UK first: The Government approves carbon certification scheme
The Government has approved the first ever UK carbon certification scheme - giving investors maximum confidence, and enabling businesses to communicate UK woodland creation projects in their green house gas reports.
The Woodland Carbon Code has been developed by an industry stakeholder group led by the Forestry Commission.
The initiative aims to provide transparency and credibility to UK woodland projects designed to capture and store carbon.
The code provides a best practice guide for organisations wishing to create woodland to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This gives businesses a unique opportunity to mitigate their carbon emissions through tree planting in the UK. Woodland carbon projects also bring many additional benefits to the local environment, people and wildlife.
The Woodland Trust has been instrumental in the Code's creation. Both companies and individuals can invest in our Woodland Carbon scheme, and Pearson, Waitrose and Eurocamp are among the first on board. They remove their carbon through the Warcop Project, our 160 hectare native woodland project in Cumbria.
The Woodland Trust's Dr Nick Atkinson led our work with the Forestry Commission to create the Code. He said: “The Woodland Carbon Code puts woodland creation on the map as part of the UK’s response to climate change. Businesses and individuals looking to voluntarily support tree planting can have confidence in the claims made around carbon removal, whilst at the same time demonstrating their environmental commitment.”
