The Natural Forest Standard (NFS) is a

voluntary Voluntary may refer to: * Voluntary (music) * Voluntary or volunteer, person participating via volunteering/volunteerism * Voluntary muscle contraction See also * Voluntary action * Voluntariness, in law and philosophy * Voluntaryism Volunt ...

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...

standard designed specifically for medium- to large-scale

REDD+ REDD+ is a voluntary climate mitigation framework developed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It aims to encourage developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation, enhance forest's ...

projects. The standard places equal emphasis on the combined carbon, social and biodiversity benefits of a project and requires a holistic approach to ensure compliance with the standards requirements and to achieve certification. The NFS applies a standardised risk-based approach to carbon quantification for consistent and comparable baseline calculations and aims to link local actions into national frameworks for reducing the loss of

natural forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

s. The NFS excludes commercial

resource extraction Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest, and cultural value. ...

and focuses on promoting the conservation of natural forests and the

biodiversity Biodiversity is the variability of life, life on Earth. It can be measured on various levels. There is for example genetic variability, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and Phylogenetics, phylogenetic diversity. Diversity is not distribut ...

and social values within them. The NFS requires projects to ensure no net

loss of biodiversity Biodiversity loss happens when plant or animal species disappear completely from Earth (extinction) or when there is a decrease or disappearance of species in a specific area. Biodiversity loss means that there is a reduction in biological dive ...

and to establish an appropriate benefit distribution mechanism to deliver social benefits to communities within the project area. The NFS demands annual verification by independent third-party carbon auditors using the ISO14064-3 and ISO 14065 frameworks. The resulting certificates for fully verified projects are issued as Natural Capital Credits.

History of the Standard

The NFS was developed in 2011 by Ecosystem Certification Organisation Ltd (ECO), a UK-based not-for-profit organisation, and Ecometrica, a sustainability and earth observation software company based in Edinburgh. The development process included engaging independent expert reviewers for comment and contribution to the standard requirements and methodology. The standard documentation was open for public consultation from 8 August to 12 October 2012 and again from 7 May to 31 July 2013.

Natural Capital Credits

Natural Capital Credits (NCCs) are the carbon units generated by NFS projects and represent the combination of net positive environmental impacts achieved by the project. The carbon benefits are quantified using risk-based methodology; as such NCCs are denoted in tonnes of

CO2e Global warming potential (GWP) is a measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere over a specific time period, relative to carbon dioxide (). It is expressed as a multiple of warming caused by the same mass of carbon dioxide ( ...

, however the term Natural Capital Credit more accurately reflects the combined values and benefits of the NFS approach.

Methodology

The methodology adopted by the NFS is based on a standardised risk-based approach and is suitable for medium- to large-scale project application. The methodology NFS AM001, does not involve predicting

land use change Land use is an umbrella term to describe what happens on a parcel of land. It concerns the benefits derived from using the land, and also the land management actions that humans carry out there. The following categories are used for land use: for ...

s in specific places at specific times, but applies a risk-based approach to baseline quantification which allows for a programmatic approach to reducing emissions. This allows efficient, valid and comparable results to be produced akin to performance benchmarking, where projects within a given region can use a consistent set of baseline data and accounting methods which provides a standardised approach to quantification of carbon benefits and is based on forest at risk and not a percentage or absolute rate of loss. The methodology allows a combination of

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...

and ground-based data as monitoring sources for monitoring the emissions from the project areas, with emphasis placed on

satellite monitoring An Earth observation satellite or Earth remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, m ...

, such as PRODES for application in

Amazonia The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses , of which are covered by the rainf ...

Verification requirements

The NFS requires that projects are independently, third-party validated and verified using

ISO 14064 The ISO 14064 standard (initially published in 2006 and updated in 2018) is the core part of the ISO 14060 family of standards that are part of the ISO 14000 series of international standards by the International Organization for Standardization ( ...

-3 and ISO 14065 frameworks, carried out by industry-recognised, specialist VVB organisations. Projects achieve certification following successful completion of this verification process, and upon confirmation of the carbon assertions by the VVB, in compliance with the standard’s requirements.

Normative Biodiversity Metric

The NFS requires project developers to use the Normative Biodiversity Metric (NBM) to assess the biodiversity within a project area. The NBM is a practical method of assessing the biodiversity value of a given area. The NBM is similar to the concepts of habitat hectares and mean

species abundance In ecology, local abundance is the relative representation of a species in a particular ecosystem. It is usually measured as the number of individuals found per sample. The ratio of abundance of one species to one or multiple other species livin ...

References

{{Reflist Forestry in the United Kingdom Forest certification Environmental certification Environmental standards