Haida Gwaii
Climate Forest Pilot Project
Business Plan

Executive Summary

This Business Plan sets forth the basic operational elements of the Haida Gwaii Climate Forest Project Plan, building on the foundation provided in the Haida Gwaii Climate Forest Feasibility Study. The feasibility study was directed to ascertain the ecological and economic viability of creating climate forests on disturbed lands of the Haida Gwaii islands. Through innovative forest stewardship, the Haida Gwaii temperate rainforest lands with their warm wet climate, rich soils and robust native vegetation can become an important part of Canada’s commitment to slow the pace of global climate change.

The most fundamental aspects of the project are it’s operational, scientific and economic viability. Through the marriage of local and global environmental awareness and the commitment of local people and organizations to develop locally managed sustainable climate forest practices, we believe the introduction of this new form of eco-forestry will help revive a struggling economy while preserving and renewing historic cultural stewardship for these misty isles.

Initially we have sought to identify something more than 1000 hectares of restorable rainforest lands primarily within riparian reserve protected zones on Graham, Louise and Morseby Islands on the Haida Gwaii. We are certain that many thousands of additional hectares of land on these islands will also qualify to become new climate forest opportunities. Of these additional lands of special interest are the lands disturbed by decades of forest clear-cut practices within the Parks Canada reserve on South Moresby.

Many of these areas were altered so dramatically through the course of logging that they remain today in a primitive state of ecosystem and forest recovery and are substantially dysfunctional. Left to the course of natural processes these dysfunctional lands may never return to their original old-growth rainforest state or will only do so over the passage of several centuries of time. With careful, well planned, active intervention and restoration we can establish a mixed forest of native species that will rapidly grow into an ancient forest-type in the course of a few decades. Through this restoration, the accelerated pace of forest recovery will produce the maximum biomass potential on these lands thus clearly providing a large gain over what might be considered the “business as usual” present forest management plans for these lands.

Prominent within the initial 1000-1500 hectares identified as a starting point for the pilot project are brush dominated riparian lands, often with alder vegetation. These zones provide an area of alder and brush dominated riparian land. While having the appearance of a recovering forest this alder is growing in an un-natural manner making up larger than normal stands of fully or nearly fully mature trees that will soon enter a very rapid decline. The rapid die-off of these alder over the course of the next 30-50 years will provide an additional environmental impact to these lands which will again delay the expected regeneration into the mixed conifer climax rainforest it was before extensive mid-twentieth century clear-cutting.

The current scientific consensus regarding these alder-dominated riparian zones is that as they rapidly die off, they will undoubtedly revert to a densely brush-ridden landscape which will prevent natural conifer secession for a century or more. Therefore, without restorative intervention these congested lands will require centuries to slowly regenerate the native climax coniferous forest. The planned 1000-5000 hectare pilot project expects to demonstrate that, when undertaken at a commercially viable scale, a dramatic conversion process (including thinning, brush removal, and cluster planting of suitable species) will accelerate the recovery of native “old growth” mixed conifer forest.

In the economic context of climate change and climate forests, the difference, or delta, in terms of biomass carbon between un-restored “business-as-usual” areas and restored and optimized climate forests will define the amount of climate forest credits this project will yield. These climate forest carbon credits are rapidly becoming a valuable commodity both in Canadian and international climate change carbon market.

A further objective of this project has been the generation of a preliminary climate forest land base inventory. Land-use classification, forest ecosystem inventorying and computer-based biomass/carbon modeling of selected areas of this land base inventory provides a picture of the potential Haida Gwaii Climate Forest and carbon credit resource therein. This inventory and forest modeling has shown that the net climate forest carbon credit resource will range between 1928 and 2454 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent) per hectare. These climate forest model projections are based on our optimized prescriptions for restoration of these lands to native mixed conifer forest along with their care and preservation.

We know the forest restoration can succeed, but it is critical that we engage in a commercial scale Pilot Project to confirm that the work can be financed, performed within the envisioned budget, and its product marketed successfully and profitably. Many details of the development and execution of such a plan can only be determined by performing the work at a commercially viable scale and to learn by doing the necessary know-how to maximize its environmental, social, and financial benefits.

A number of critical steps are required to convert relatively unproductive lands into successful carbon forests. These include establishing a reliable site specific inventory and dependable modelling methodology, providing accurate documentation on the project and process, implementing a long term monitoring program, providing verification of project results, certifying the product as “carbon forest offsets,” marketing the resulting and projected carbon, and last but not least demonstrating that this entire process is economically viable.

To that end, Raincoast Carbon Restorations has entered into Letter of Intent agreements with the Haida First Nations, through the Old Massett Village Council, to engage in a carbon forest pilot project and address these successive issues on traditional Haida territories on the Queen Charlotte Islands. To realize the greatest mutual benefit from this partnership relationship, the Haida First Nation and Raincoast Carbon Restorations will provide complimentary skills and expertise. In concert the team will design and initiate the pilot project. Raincoast Carbon Restorations will manage the forest science, business design and operation, verification and certification of product, and marketing and sales. The Haida partners will manage and oversee forest restoration, long term maintenance, long term forest data and measurement, and protection.

This pilot project is expressly intended to create a collaborative learning arena in which the Haida people, the Province, and Raincoast Carbon Restorations will be able to mutually explore the most effective techniques in the field of carbon forestry as well as new business opportunities in the rapidly emerging global climate change carbon market. This Business Plan overviews some basic elements of that business opportunity, including the financial aspects, marketing aspects, employment statistics, legal relationships, liability assumptions, etc.

Background

What

The Haida Gwaii Climate Forest Pilot Project will actively restore old growth characteristics to dysfunctional riparian zones in the temperate rainforests of the Haida Gwaii. The regrettable fact is that a great many of the logged watersheds in the province of British Columbia now exist in a dysfunctional state. Instead of being restored covered by old growth forests or young forests on their way to old growth health and stature as they naturally should be, they are often dominated by brush species or heedlessly dense conifer re-plantings. The latter produce stifled trees with choked root systems, constricted spindly crowns and given their consequent vulnerability to blow down, disease, and limited productivity and longevity.

For the last decade these important restoration activities have been undertaken via FRBC/FIA funding. Now, the project proponents propose an alternative source of funding for these essential restoration activities. Raincoast Carbon proposes to repair dysfunctional watersheds by restoring their old growth characteristics and creating, as a product, a healthy protected carbon forest. The sale of these eco-friendly carbon credits will serve as the primary source of funding for the main phase of the 10,000 – 15,000 hectare Haida Gwaii Climate Forest plan. Economically, this should relieve the financial burden currently borne by stakeholders who bear the legal responsibility for these restorations.

Raincoast Carbon maintains that rainforest restoration is a promising part of the solution to global climate change that is a national priority here in Canada. The science behind the project is technically sophisticated but easily grasped: Arboreal photosynthesis uses the sun's energy to capture CO2, the most important greenhouse gas, and store the carbon as wood (tree biomass) for the life of the forest. As trees grow they continue to sequester (breathe-in and store) carbon helping to cleanse the atmosphere of climate-changing CO2 for long periods of time. The climate forests we seek to create will first replace the brush dominated dysfunctional riparian zones. They will be long-standing, maximally protected in legal status, carbon-fixing rainforests that can accumulate and store enormous quantities of greenhouse gas.

With implementation of the Kyoto Protocol in February 2005, domestic and international funding is now available to invest in carbon forests to create these natural greenhouse gas sinks, and the carbon volume deposited therein has become a bankable, tradable commodity. The unit of trade is known as a greenhouse gas certified emission reduction offset credit, a “CER” or “carbon credit” for short, and is computed in tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent). Each healthy rainforest tree in the Haida Gwaii Climate Forest sequesters and retains many tonnes of atmospheric CO2e. Besides helping reduce the hazards of global climate change, rainforest restoration enhances and protects allied environmental gains benefiting fish, wildlife, biodiversity, water quality, and recreation, as well as providing new eco-forestry employment for people in nearby communities.

Who

The Haida Gwaii Climate Forest Pilot Project is being put forward as a joint venture between the Old Masset Village Council, through the kluu laanas Community Development Corporation, and Raincoast Carbon Restorations, a Vancouver-based environmental restoration consulting partnership.

Where

The Haida Gwaii Climate Forest Pilot Project will be launched on protected land and park reserves on British Columbia’s Haida Gwaii/Queen Charlotte Islands.

When

The Haida Gwaii Climate Forest Pilot Project is slated to begin as soon as September, 2005, contingent on funding. After completion of this pilot phase, much wider reaches of former rainforest terrain will then be targeted for restoration. The project will initially employ 24 or more local forest workers who will be trained in the emerging field of restoration carbon forestry as they begin to heal both the local and global environments, and revive the forest grandeur that nurtured the rich traditions of this once and future magical land.

Why

Climate change is serious. A failure to act now to mitigate climate change will result in irreversible damage to planet earth. Presently, polar ice caps continue to melt, water tables continue to shrink and the rate at which this damage occurs will only increase unless we act now. Canada has always maintained that forest restoration and forest management can be an essential tool in mitigating and eventually reversing climate change.

The Haida Gwaii Climate Forest Project represents an important step in fulfilling the promise of Canada’s forests to mitigate climate change while benefiting Canada’s citizens, environment and culture. Restoring a watershed not only increases the capacity of the land to absorb and store atmospheric carbon, it also restores essential biodiversity to that land. In particular, on the watersheds, restorations of this nature will provide essential breeding habitat for salmon, an essential resource to the Haida. This is but one example of how the Haida Gwaii Climate Forest Project is a model of sustainable development for the Haida and Canada as a whole.

TimeLine:

The following timeline is contingent on funding approval by September of 2006. There is a minimum 6 month lead-time required for ordering tree seedlings for planting, and planting seasons for Haida Gwaii occur in the late Spring and early Fall. This would give the required lead time for baseline data collection to take place in the late Fall of ’06 and early Spring of ’07 while understory and deciduous species are dormant.

· Source seedling availability and order stock

· Operational planning and cost determination

· Develop detailed work plan and budgets

· Establish standards and requirements for baseline data collection

· Biometric data collection

· Prescription development

· Carbon profile modeling

· Layout and polygon mapping

· Hiring and training crew members

· Alder felling

· Clearing planting clusters and planting

· Conifer release treatments

· Ongoing biometric data collection, prescription development and modeling for Fall work areas

· Site prep for Fall planting sites

· Biodiversity feature enhancement

· Planting

· Identification of restoration candidate areas for 2007/2008 work season

· Development of monitoring standards and requirements

· Additional restoration activities contingent on financing

EMployment Statistics

The Haida Gwaii Climate Forest Project will employ restoration foresters from the community of Old Masset and the Haida Gwaii, who will be trained in the specific requirements of climate forest restoration and management. Statistics of personnel employed will grow as the project moves from its 1000-1500Ha pilot phase into the full 10,000 – 15,000Ha full project phase.

Past experience has shown running with crews of 10 – 12 individuals is an effective approach for this detailed level of restoration. Each crew of 12, once up to full speed, should average approximately 2.5 hectares per day (5 ha/day total) for the proposed 200 day work term. Therefore, the pilot phase of the project will employ 24 restoration foresters for 200 work days for the year it will take to complete the pilot phase.

As production ramps up to include the full 10,000-15,000ha of restoration, crews will doubled to 48 (4 crews of twelve) and full time employment will be guaranteed for a minimum of 5 years, with a mandated requirement for treatment re-entries for an additional ten years post planting phase.