Bringing forest carbon projects to the market

It should be remembered that the data concerning the VCS standard areunderestimated because the VCS site does not provide information on projects in theprocess of registration. Only validated projects are made public.Finally, and in parallel with this push towards “standardization”, there is still asubstantial supply of projects that are not yet seeking standardization. These maybe using internal quality criteria to avoid the large transaction costs associated withthe different standards, especially when the projects are very small in size (figure 16).They may also be developed under the more general environmental philanthropyframework, which is less strict as to the carbon calculations for the credits generated(additionality, monitoring, etc.) but sometimes more innovative and more focused onenvironmental and social co-benefits.1.4.2. A Diverse geographical distributionProjets forestiers par région 2009 :The global distribution of forestry projects is presented in figure 13.Forestry projects by region 2009 : 434 projetcs8,1%15,9%13,8%Forestry projects by region 2007: 178 projects32,7%15,1%21,9%32,0%7,6%11,0%7,0%16,3%North AmericaLatin AmericaEuropeAfricaAsiaOceania18,6%Figure 13: Distribution of forest projects by broad geographical region in 2007 and 2009(Source: ONFI)42The fragile position of forestry projects in the carbon markets