Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) has called for corporate investors to help progress woodland creation and peatland restoration projects on land that it manages – as it hopes to capture one million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
FLS said the opportunities are spread across the country and are in various stages of development, in anticipation of there being interest from the private sector.
The body has a “pipeline of projects” that can only be fully developed through funding from partners, which it says will lead to funders receiving independently-verified woodland carbon units that can be used to offset their future emissions from UK operations.
Government and philanthropic sources have provided substantial funding for projects that address biodiversity loss and mitigate climate change – but there is an estimated funding gap of at least £20bn in Scotland.
The statement from FLS suggested that natural capital markets can help channel investment from the private sector to help fill this gap, for example through the voluntary carbon market underpinned by the Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code.
All FLS carbon projects will be independently verified to the UK Woodland Carbon Code or Peatland Code, ensuring that all carbon units - also known as carbon credits or offsets - are real, measureable, permanent and unique.
Partners looking to work with FLS will need to demonstrate that they have taken steps to measure their carbon footprint, prevent any avoidable emissions and reduce their remaining emissions as far as possible.
FLS chief executive Simon Hodgson said. “We’ve spent time looking closely at the land we manage to understand where - if money was no object - we could go further to enhance habitats and lock up more carbon.
“We’ve identified more than 80 carbon projects spanning over 5,000 hectares across Scotland that we do not have the resources to develop.
“They all have the capacity to deliver benefits to local communities, habitats and biodiversity and the economy, but they also have the capacity to contribute to the delivery of global benefits through the capture of one million tonnes of carbon emissions.
“We are now looking for new partners to work with us and fund some of these exciting projects.”
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