Woodland Carbon

Our baseline assessment for sequestration of carbon in trees is the Woodland Carbon Code. This is the quality assured standard for woodland carbon projects in the UK. It ensures that projects provide reliable estimates of sequestration, are responsibly managed and independently verified.

In addition to this level of assessment we enhance our projects with BEAMS (Biocarbon European Advancing Measurement Standard) monitoring. This provides a more accurate estimation of “above ground” biomass, using Terrestrial Laser Scanning, drones and ground truthing.

We measure, monitor and verify our woodland every five years, which provides us with our volume and carbon metrics. The assessments enable a more detailed measure and assessment of forestry than traditional forestry mensuration techniques. Three techniques are employed:

• Terrestrial Laser Scanning : This takes place on the ground, taking 3D measurements of trees to create a volume calculation, which can be converted to mass using the wood density.

• Drone Optical Imaging : by drone at 2.5cm Ground Sampling Distance satellite, very high spacial resolution image data can be used to monitor the development of young trees that would not otherwise be identified by satellite imagery at 10m GSD, and to map woodland.

• Drone LIDAR Imaging : A “light detection and ranging” sensor is used on a drone, measuring the speed of laser pulses to establish surface terrain, tree locations and heights. This provides the data required to quality assure the measurement of above ground biomass.

In addition, we will measure (at base level and five yearly) bio-​diversity levels within our woodlands using Acoustic Monitoring. This is where listening bases are established to monitor the increased bird noise in the area promoting improved biodiversity with increased avian numbers. We will also monitor water and soil quality.