Harnessing Farms and Forests in the Low-Carbon Economy: How to Create, Measure and Verify Greenhouse Gas Offsets.

Willey, Zach and Bill Chameides. 2007. Durham: Duke University Press, 240 pages, ISBN: 978-0-8223-4186-0 (paperback), CDN $60.00 (paperback)

The Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University is a non-partisan institute that engages with decision makers in government, the private sector, and the non-profit community to help address environmental challenges. The Institute has achieved this by publishing Harnessing Farms and Forests in the Low-Carbon Economy: How to Create, Measure and Verify Greenhouse Gas Offsets. This is a very simple solution to use and a valuable tool for anyone contemplating or interested in helping to mitigate global warming and becoming involved in the new low-carbon economy.

The aim of this handbook is to provide a comprehensive and user-friendly description of the principles and methods needed to quantify the emission of greenhouse gases and the sequestration of carbon in plant biomass and soil, and how to curb greenhouse gas emissions using sustainable land management practices. These principles are built on years of scientific studies that have helped to determine the most accurate methods for quantifying changes in carbon stocks, in plant biomass and in soil. This book is intended to help the landowner and farmer to find a balance between reliability and affordability in initiating and managing a carbon offset project. The book emphasizes that the economic revenue achieved by the offset project should outweigh the cost of measuring, monitoring, and verifying carbon sinks and sources.

This book is written for a broad audience that includes landowners and farmers; project developers that are responsible for implementing the carbon offset; project quantifiers that perform the monitoring and analysis of carbon sources and sinks; project verifiers who are independent agents auditing the quantification of the project offsets; regulators who develop and enforce regulations that govern carbon-offsets; and retailers, buyers and brokers that purchase offsets for the low-carbon economy.

The book discusses in detail the importance of creating a low-carbon economy in Section 1. This is followed by an in-depth description of the actual process involved in creating offsets, including which emissions and sinks to quantify, creating contracts for trading offsets, and registering and verifying offsets. The reader can follow a flowchart to gain assurance that their anticipated project will provide the offsets they seek. Chapter 3 outlines the various land management practices that help to sequester carbon and provides a realistic view of sequestration and emissions by making the reader aware that one type of land management practice may sequester carbon, but the application of fertilizer may actually increase nitrous oxide emissions--including the manufacture of the fertilizers themselves. This chapter, as well as chapters 6 and 7, outlines which land management practices should be implemented to sequester carbon in the soil and trees, and how to measure them in detail. However, this chapter does not mention the role of the low-carbon economy in organic farming practices and in agroforestry systems. Section 2 outlines in detail the steps that need to be taken to determine a project's offsets including the costs and benefits of a proposed project, the quantification of greenhouse gases, quantifying and minimizing methane and nitrous oxide emissions, how to estimate leakage from the project, and how to verify and register carbon offsets.

Overall, this book provides an impressive sample of tools and resources on how to become part of the low-carbon economy. It provides excellent illustrations including tables, figures, and flow charts to help the land owner and farmer decide which path to pursue in the low-carbon economy, and text boxes to help explain in detail, step-by-step, how they should be applied. This book also features an in-depth set of appendices, including a sample of field protocols for establishing plots and measuring biomass in a forest project, to implement a carbon offset project.

However, some of the material may be a little difficult to follow for the layperson and would require trained personnel to work with the land owner or farmer to help implement an offset project. This would make certain that the field sample protocol is in place and can be easily used for future monitoring and verification to ensure that the landowner or farmer will maximize their economic return. This book is written for an American audience in the lack of metric units, and the discussion of the economy and policy. Should there be any future editions of this handbook, it would be helpful to gear the text toward a more international audience.

Reviewed by Maren Oelbermann, Department of Environment and Resource Studies, University of Waterloo

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