The Sitka Spruce forests of Afognak are also home to a variety of wildlife like Kodiak brown bears, river otters, bald eagles and five different species of Pacific salmon. There may be as many as 1,000 bears on the 700 square mile island. There are about 200 methods by which project developers can generate verified carbon offsets. One benefit of forest related carbon projects is the biodiversity co-benefits. That is, by investing in these projects we're not just receiving their carbon benefits but also supporting multiple ecosystems. It's a high leverage investment.
Unfortunately, in the past some of the forest was clear-cut, leaving nothing, without any program to replant the trees.
Thankfully, this project is regrowing and protecting the forest and animal habitats with the goal to conserve this forest in perpetuity. By retaining carbon contained in the current forest biomass, sequestering additional carbon, and avoiding emissions from logging and transportation the Afognak Project will trap a whopping 1.5 million tons of CO2. This is equivalent to the emissions from 300,000 vehicles.
We invest our time researching reliable, high-quality projects, and in the future we hope to create a similar project right here in Indiana. The Afognak Forest Carbon Project is validated by the Rainforest Alliance and certified by VCS (Verified Carbon Standard),which is one of the highest ranked offset programs in the world.
This video shows what the ecosystem is like there. We're not affiliated with the company that produced this video, but we wanted to include it here to show Afognak's natural beauty:
If you’d like to learn more about the project, check out the project description, and contact us with your questions.
This post was written by Parker Angelos, and Mallory Cullen found the images.