One of our first steps was to get a better background understanding of the science and policy on forest carbon management in British Columbia. Greig and Bull (2008, 2011) provide a great pair of general articles outlining much of this information. Two other must-have documents, produced by the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, are the British Columbia Forest Offset Guide and the BC Forest Carbon Offset Protocol.
The Guide is a general road map to developing a forest offset project, whereas, the Protocol is more of an expanded checklist that makes sure proponents are following the intent of the BC Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act (GGRT) act. Both were produced by the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.
Bill 44 – 2007 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act
Both the Guide and the Protocol would not exist if not for provincial legislation that was passed in 2007. Bill 44 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act (http://leg.bc.ca/38th3rd/3rd_read/gov44-3.htm) lays out greenhouse gas reduction targets for the province (33% reduction below 2007 levels in 2020, and 80% reduction below 2007 levels in 2050). As well, the Act stipulates that all provincial public sector organizations are required to achieve carbon neutral status by either pursuing actions to reduce emissions or purchase emission offsets to net emissions to zero. Besides having an academic and applied research interest in forest carbon management, the College also has a financial interest in this project as it falls under the definition of a provincial public sector organization, and as, such must now comply with achieving zero net emissions.
ISO Standards
Both the Guide and the Protocol reference the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Greenhouse Gas (1406x series) standards. Unfortunately, ISO charges for all standards so these must be purchased (http://www.iso.org/iso/home.htm). It may be possible for the College Library to purchase these and provide them for loan – something we’ll look into.
ISO 14064-1:2006 Greenhouse gases — Part 1: Specification with guidance at the organization level for quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals
ISO 14064-2:2006 Greenhouse gases — Part 2: Specification with guidance at the project level for quantification, monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas level for quantification, monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas
ISO 14064-3:2006 Greenhouse gases — Part 3: Specification with guidance for the validation and verification of greenhouse gas assertions
ISO 14065:2007 Greenhouse gases — Requirements for greenhouse gas validation and verification bodies for use in accreditation or other forms of recognition
ISO 14066:2011 Greenhouse gases – Competence requirements for greenhouse gas validation teams and verification teams
The SDSC
Another important information source for us has been the local group of forest science professionals, contractors, and other informed people who agreed to sit on our Selkirk Decision Support Committee (SDSC). These folks have been a great source of direction for the project thus far.
