Native CarbonCrop Units
How does Native CCU align with best practice guidelines?
The New Zealand Ministry for the Environment has guidelines on good practices for voluntary offsets. Here is an overview of how we compare:
27th July 2023 Update: ICVCM's Core Carbon Principles and Assessment Framework has just been finalised and released. We will review these guidelines and update our position in due course.
What is a Native CarbonCrop Unit?
Each Native CarbonCrop Unit represents one tonne of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere within the last five years by native forest. While similar to New Zealand Units (NZUs) issued by the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme (NZ ETS), CarbonCrop Units are not interchangeable for NZUs and cannot be used to meet compliance obligations under the NZ ETS.
Landholders who are awarded CarbonCrop Units have a binding obligation to ensure the CO2 stays sequestered in the regenerating biomass of the registered native forest for the next 100 years.
The forest registered can only achieve this by being kept healthy, and landholders not allowing it to degrade, regardless of the initial establishment date of the forest.
Glen Dene, a 3,000 hectare high country station in Otago, owned by the Burdon family, was one of the first recipients of Native CarbonCrop Units.
Native CarbonCrop Units have led to a tangible financial outcome, now all reinvested in restoration and showing us that the station can generate new, conservation-related income streams alongside traditional farming.
- Richard & Sarah Burdon, Glen Dene