Forest Carbon Offset Project In Canada Damaged By Raging Wildfires

The Canadian BigCoast Forest Climate Initiative carbon project was affected by a blaze of raging wildfires that engulfed parts of the country at the beginning of June 2023. The project, run by Mosaic Forest Management Corporation, has yet to calculate the size of the impact on their base.

Focused on sustainable forest management, the BigCoast Forest Climate Initiative aims to preserve woodlands and generate positive social and economic benefits for the communities involved. It began work in 2022, when it committed to not harvesting trees on over 40,000 hectares of Mosaic’s private land throughout Coastal British Columbia for a minimum of 25 years.

The project also offers carbon credits to companies looking for emissions compensation. This is made possible through the initiative’s carbon storage and avoidance services, which rely on independent verification before issuing credits and making them available for purchase.

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The managing company stated that about 100 hectares of their 40.000 hectares of forest were affected by the fire, or in other words, 0.25% of the entire project. This leaves uncertainties about the extent of damage to their CO2 removal capacity as well as the amount of carbon released during the fire.

Scientists have expressed concern that using a temporary carbon storage solution such as trees, hides a lot of risks, as the emission compensation provided by this method can’t compete with the harmful effect of burning fossil fuels, which remain in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. Forest fires are another threat that will require significant assessment in the future.

After the fire was suppressed, Mosaic classified the volume of affected property as “negligible”. The company will take some time to calculate emissions and apply them to future carbon accounting while alertly facing the rest of the Canadian fire season along with other carbon offset providers.