A carbon removal developer with huge offtake support verified the first US-based afforestation (ARR) project through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Verified Impact programme for biodiversity, it announced Thursday.

Chestnut Carbon has verified its Sustainable Restoration Project through the FSC, certifying that the project will have quantified positive impacts on biodiversity by restoring over 16,000 acres (6,500 ha) to native forestlands.

“It is an honour to be recognised by FSC for our carbon removal projects’ commitment to biodiversity,” Shannon Smith, chief commercial officer of Chestnut Carbon, said in a statement.

“In pursuit of our goal to remove 100 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere, we will continue to conserve and restore forestland across the US and to support long-term conservation of ecosystems in the process.”

Chestnut’s project has passed Gold Standard’s project design certification but is not yet a certified project, so there have been no credits developed or issued to date. Credits are expected as early as six years into the project, accumulating over 4.5 mln credits for the 50-year crediting period, as listed in the project’s design document. The project was first registered in 2023 and its crediting period commenced as of Dec. 2022.

Chestnut will be acquiring and leasing unproductive, intensively managed pasture and croplands to plant trees and restore diverse, native forests. The project consists of 25 project sites across Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Forest Carbon Works, a division of Chestnut, will manage the forests and maintain the project’s FSC certification.

The project has received support from the private sector, including two long-term offtake agreements with Microsoft in 2023 for 362,000 tonnes and last week for 7 mln tonnes. Microsoft’s backing through offtake agreements has generated growth in the carbon removal space, with the tech giant accounting for 72% of fresh demand in 2024.

Microsoft is also a member of the Symbiosis Coalition, a collection of large tech companies focused on supporting nature restoration projects. The group has recently been actively pursuing forest carbon credits like those being developed by Chestnut.

The new FSC certification could drive even more demand for the credits as it “showcases the projects impacts on factors including watersheds, carbon sequestration, soil conservation, recreational services, and species diversity,” Chestnut said.

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