Community guidelines for accessing forestry voluntary carbon ... - FAO

Carbon Offset
A carbon credit (one tCO 2
e of emission reductions) generated through
activities in one place may be ‘sold’ to individuals or organizations
unconnected with those activities. The buyer of this carbon credit
claims to have compensated, or ‘offset’, an equal amount of emissions
generated from their own activities. The VCM is essentially a market in
carbon offsets.
Carbon Pool
The locations within an ecosystem where carbon is present continuously.
In a forest, the main carbon pools are in biomass (both above and below
ground), dead matter and soil. Harvested Wood Products (HWPs) are
also considered a carbon pool, although no longer part of the forest
ecosystem, because they store carbon continuously in the long term.
Carbon Sequestration
The uptake and storage of carbon is known as carbon sequestration.
Trees and other plants, for example, do this by absorbing CO 2
from the
atmosphere. In the process known as photosynthesis, CO 2
is broken
down into oxygen, which is released back into the atmosphere, and
carbon, which becomes part of the plant. As a result, forests store (or
‘sequester’) large amounts of carbon.
Carbon Sink
Carbon sinks are carbon pools which store more carbon than they
release. Forests and oceans act as major carbon sinks in the global
carbon cycle; carbon constantly flows into them and out of them, back
into the atmosphere. In some situations, forests may release more
carbon than they store, making them ‘carbon sources’. Note: the carbon
stored in fossil fuel deposits is not considered a carbon sink, because it
is not active in the carbon cycle.
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