Over the last few years carbon credits from forest projects have gained full acceptance in the global carbon markets. The recently published report ”State of Forest Carbon Finance 2016” by Ecosystem Marketplace tells the story.

Plan Vivo is the forest carbon standard that ZeroMission works most with and it’s encouraging to see the standard growing globally and holding a high value position in the market.

• Of 18.2 million tonnes of offsets transacted in 2015, about 4% were from Plan Vivo projects. In 2014 it was just 2%.
• Of c.150 forest and land use projects that are under development or in operation in the BRICs or developing countries, 43 are Plan Vivo projects
• Plan Vivo and Gold Standard offsets command higher prices than other standards because of the co-benefits inbedded in the projects
• Plan Vivo projects are representative of the global market in which half of the projects that reported on their financing have sources of income other than offset sales.

It’s harder to draw comparisons from the report between the various standards on issues such as monitoring of social benefits, land tenure, use of revenues from offset sales and offset retirement rates. In these areas we rely on our close contact with the Plan Vivo projects and our knowledge about all the standards to conclude that the Plan Vivo standard continues to offer most for both people and planet.