Carbon Forestry course

15 Feb - 15 Mar 2021, Online

With respect to climate change mitigation, the sequestration of carbon by forests and soils is one of the most important ecosystem services of terrestrial ecosystems. Therefore, large efforts have been undertaken and major political initiatives started to increase the carbon storage capacity of forests and their products.

Professionals with competencies in the development of land use based mitigation projects and with knowledge of related climate policy instruments at national and international levels are increasingly needed.

The Chair of Silviculture at Freiburg University offers – in cooperation with renowned partner organisations active in the land-use sector (UNIQUE, Solidaridad and others) – this 3-week course in Carbon Forestry. The continuing education course has been offered for several years to practitioners and scientist in the forest project sector and was considered highly useful for their further career.

Participants of this course will learn about recent developments in international climate change policy, as well as compliance and voluntary carbon markets. Upon successful completion of the course, participants will be able to

  • analyse and evaluate land use project documents,
  • design carbon forestry projects (incl. REDD+, Afforestation/Reforestation, Improved Forest Management, Smart Climate Agriculture),
  • determine emission reduction effects and the amount of carbon credits generated by the projects, using appropriate methods and tools (including quantifying C pools in afforested plantations in the field),
  • plan and undertake assessments of carbon pools and fluxes to monitor forestry and other land-use carbon projects,
  • apply principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and environmental and social safeguards in such projects,
  • critically evaluate climate change policies, including development perspectives of carbon forestry and emission reduction markets, and
  • design financing mechanisms for forestry C projects.

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