Saskatchewan forest carbon sequestration project

Abstract

In 2002 a project in Saskatchewan became the first forest carbon (C) sequestration project to be formally reviewed and approved in Canada under the Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading (GERT) Pilot. GERT concluded that the project will result in real, measurable, verifiable and surplus net sequestration, calculated as C stock changes in the with-project case less C stock changes in the reference (without project) case. The project is a 50-year agreement (2000–2050) in which Saskatchewan Environment sells net C sequestration to the provincial electrical utility Saskatchewan Power Corporation. Net sequestration of 1.6 Mt C is expected to result from the establishment of white spruce plantations on 3300 ha and from forest protection through creation of 206 000 ha of Forest Carbon Reserves. Issues that arose in the review included leakage, the permanence of the sequestered carbon and risk of losses, establishment of the reference case, methodologies for projections of impacts, approaches for sampling and measurements, and accounting methods. GERT established a number of reporting and other conditions to be fulfilled when estimates of actual net sequestration are registered. Future forest C sequestration projects, project reviews and policy development will be able to draw upon the lessons learned from the Saskatchewan project. Key words: carbon sequestration, carbon sequestration projects, Saskatchewan, Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Trading Pilot, plantations, forest protection, leakage, permanence, carbon accounting, carbon measurement