Planting trees is the most intuitive climate action there is — and reforestation carbon credits are how tree planting becomes a measurable, sellable climate asset. Here’s how afforestation and reforestation (ARR) projects work, and what separates a great forestry credit from a photogenic one.
Afforestation vs reforestation
Reforestation restores forest on recently deforested or degraded land; afforestation establishes forest where there wasn’t one in recent history. Both are grouped as ARR in carbon markets, and both generate removal credits: growing trees physically pull CO2 out of the atmosphere and store it in wood and soil. That removal status matters — science-based net-zero frameworks increasingly require removals for residual emissions, making ARR credits structurally more in demand than avoidance credits.
How trees become tonnes
A developer secures land rights, plants (ideally native, mixed species), and models carbon uptake with allometric equations — how much carbon a tree of given species and size holds. Credits are issued as verified growth occurs, not all upfront: a hectare of tropical reforestation might sequester 5–15 tonnes of CO2 per year during peak growth. Auditors verify survival rates and biomass on the ground and via satellite; a portion of credits goes into a buffer pool as insurance against reversal.
What they cost
ARR credits average around $22 per tonne in 2026 — a premium over avoidance credits, reflecting removal status and real establishment costs (land, seedlings, labor, decades of maintenance). High-co-benefit projects — biodiversity corridors, agroforestry with smallholders, mangrove restoration — command more.
The honest risks
Permanence. Trees burn, sicken, and get logged. Buffer pools and monitoring mitigate this, but forest carbon is inherently less durable than geological storage. Time lag. A seedling stores almost nothing; peak sequestration arrives years after planting. Beware projects selling decades of projected future growth as credits today. Land competition. Bad ARR displaces food production or communities, or plants monoculture plantations that later become timber. Species mix and land tenure diligence matter. Survival. Headline “million trees planted” numbers mean little; verified survival at year five is the number that counts.
What to check before buying
Current Verra or Gold Standard methodology; independent rating; native/mixed species rather than eucalyptus monoculture (unless honestly labelled timber agroforestry); credits issued against verified growth, not projections; clear land rights; and registry retirement. Ask one killer question: what happens in year 30? Good projects have an answer — long-term easements, community ownership, ongoing monitoring. Great forestry credits are patient assets that pay the planet compound interest.
