Nature-based carbon removals projects can create valuable credits that command price premiums over avoidance and reduction credits. But they are also hard to scale, and it will take years to meaningfully increase stocks of forestry removals credits in the voluntary carbon market.

Several headwinds have slowed nature-based carbon removal credit issuances. They include difficulty in getting some auditors to regularly verify stored carbon, a short supply of appropriate land and difficulty in persuading property owners to transition from agriculture production or other uses.

In the face of criticisms regarding project integrity, developers want to proceed slowly to ensure their projects produce reliable, high-quality credits. Meanwhile, popular Blue Carbon and Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation projects face a more fundamental speed limit: it takes time and resources to grow a tree.

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