Vermont Land Trust Aggregation

Empowering Small Landowners to Access Carbon Markets

SIG and its Partners Create the First Carbon Aggregation Project in America

In order to promote sustainable forest management despite fragmented ownership, SIG teamed with academic and advocacy organizations in Vermont. The project we developed together allows landowners to pool resources and split transaction costs. With SIG taking on performance risk and covering project development costs, small landowners were able to enter the market without upfront out-of-pocket costs.

Lots of Forest, Lots of Owners

Vermont sits in the middle of the largest intact broadleaf forest in the world. The forest is a major carbon sink, storing billions of tons of carbon. But land ownership is diffuse, with 80% of the state’s forestlands held by families. With mostly small parcels that have been handed down for generations, it is difficult for landowners to access the expertise, time, and capital to practice sustainable forestry.

It Takes a Team

The Vermont Land Trust, with the backing of the High Meadows Fund and the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board, commissioned a study on the feasibility of small landowners leveraging the carbon market through a statewide program. They turned to Spatial Informatics Group, in partnership with the University of Vermont, to analyze the land, the market, and potential participants.

Putting Lands Together

SIG quickly discovered that entering the carbon market was prohibitive for landowners with fewer than 3,500 acres. This was due to the upfront costs associated with inventorying land, as well as the ongoing monitoring requirements – all necessary parts of the monetization process. However, by banding together, those costs can be pooled, making them more manageable. Confident that a pooled, multi-owner project would be successful, Vermont Land Trust assembled ten landowners with twelve parcels of land into the nation’s first cooperative carbon program. Partnering with The Nature Conservancy and SIG Carbon, land owners were aggregated into a single project.

Offsetting Emissions through Sustainable Forestry

Approximately 8,600 acres are enrolled in the Cold Hollow to Canada Aggregated Carbon Project. Under their carbon agreements, landowners deploy stewardship and land management practices that increase carbon sequestration to earn their carbon credits. These practices include allowing trees to grow older and thinning that helps the understory to grow and sequester carbon. At the same time, the forestland owners will continue to benefit financially from continued timber harvest and other forest uses, including maple sugaring.

Forest Carbon Offsets