The London office of Sustainable Forestry Management will purchase emissions reduction offsets through reforestation of tribal lands of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana on the Flathead Indian Reservation . The proceeds from this transaction will be used to reforest land in Sanders County, Montana, which was burned by forest fires in 1994. Official announcement of the transaction was made in Washington, D.C. by Richard Sandor, chairman of Sustainable Forestry Management, during his testimony at a hearing on environmental trading before the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee . Environmental Financial Products arranged the transaction and advised both parties. This path-breaking international transaction is a statement of how reforestation can advance the global carbon market and help address climate change while improving the socioeconomic conditions of local communities.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen as they grow.
Carbon sequestration, the removal from the atmosphere of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, is considered a valuable resource in the effort to reverse climate change. Carbon dioxide, produced by the combustion of coal and petroleum products, is the main gas linked to global warming. Forests sequester CO2 because trees absorb the gas and emit oxygen as they grow. Carbon sequestration is viewed as one of the most effective tools available to combat global warming. The trade was facilitated by the Montana Carbon Offset Coalition , which is working to create a new marketable commodity, carbon credits, from urban and private forest lands and croplands.