Rural gradient carbon market opportunities

This $1,999,950 Cooperative Agreement was awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service under the Inflation Reduction Act Landscape Scale Restoration program (CFDA 10.731). The project, awarded to the Urban Forest Carbon Registry in August 2024, delivers three key solutions over 3 years to enable hundreds of land trusts to enroll thousands of rural landowners in carbon offset and ecosystem services programs:

1. Technical assistance toolkits to help landowners assess eligibility, understand carbon crediting obligations, and navigate the quantification and verification process. 30% of the budget is dedicated to tailoring these toolkits for underserved landowners in Focus Area 1.

2. Carbon Connection Teams that provide hands-on consulting, crediting assistance, and capacity-building for land trusts to facilitate landowner participation. 35% of the budget supports the Teams' outreach and 1-on-1 support in Focus Area 1.

3. A comprehensive online crediting platform that streamlines the project enrollment and credit issuance process for landowners. The platform allocates resources across Focus Areas 1 and 2 based on the relative land area.

The project engages sub-awardees Georgia-Alabama Land Trust, Davey Resource Group, and Western Reserve Land Conservancy to deliver these solutions and establish a replicable model for enabling rural landowner access to private environmental markets.