The Role for Sustainably Managed Forests in Climate Change Mitigation

The United States (U.S.) has not ratified the Kyoto Pr tocol, restricting the ability of forests from participating internationally as greenhouse gas (GH G) emission offset projects. As a result, a proliferation of different Registry and program rul es is occurring in the U.S., providing an opportuni ty for the U.S. forestry community to mitigate GHG emi ssions. This paper addresses the Kyoto Protocol principles of additionality, permanence, and leakag e, and challenges the way that these principles are being used to qualify forest offset projects as cli mate change mitigation measures. Policy initiatives are proposed for challenging policy makers and the fore stry community to rethink sustainably managed forest offset project rules as the U.S. considers G HG emission reduction legislation.