Amazon plants seeds for forest restoration initiative
Amazon is making a $10 million grant to conserve, restore, and support sustainable forestry, wildlife and nature-based solutions across the Appalachian Mountains.
This project, launching in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, is the first effort from Amazon’s $100 million Right Now Climate Fund, an initiative to remove carbon from the atmosphere through the global restoration and conservation of forests, wetlands, grasslands and peatlands.
It will initially support projects in Pennsylvania and Vermont that will help family-forest owners sequester carbon and support expansion across the Appalachians in a network of climate-resilient forests. Families will be provided tools and resources to assess, plan and implement forest management practices that increase the economic and ecological values of their forests.
Amazon, The Nature Conservancy, the American Forest Foundation, and the Vermont Land Trust are partnering on two projects – the Family Forest Carbon Program and Forest Carbon Co-ops. The Family Forest Carbon Program will open up carbon credit markets to small family forest-owners in the Appalachians and other U.S. regions, and go toward designing new methods for measuring and verifying reforestation and forest management practices.
The Forest Carbon Co-op will help owners of mid-sized forests use sustainable forest management and protection measures to earn income through the carbon credit market. Amazon’s grant will support efforts to expand the program in climate-resilient forests across the Appalachians, develop a scientific approach to regional carbon impact measurement, and enhance the project verification methodology.
Amazon is the largest funder of these programs, which the e-tailer hopes will achieve a net reduction of up to 18.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 2031 – the equivalent of 46 billion miles driven by an average passenger vehicle.
“These projects will conserve forests and wildlife for future generations – and the planet – and help remove carbon from the atmosphere,” said Kara Hurst, VP, sustainability, Amazon. “Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund will be investing $100 million in nature-based climate solutions like these that tackle the climate crisis while also having a positive economic impact in the community and in nature. We are delighted to work with The Nature Conservancy, the American Forest Foundation, and the Vermont Land Trust on our road to achieving Amazon’s Climate Pledge goal of being net-zero carbon by 2040.”