Small-scale forestry and carbon offset markets: An empirical study of Vermont current use forest landowner willingness to accept carbon credit programs

Alisa E. White, David A. Lutz, Richard B. Howarth, José R. Soto

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study investigates the preferences of small forest landowners regarding forest carbon credit programs while documenting characteristics of potentially successful frameworks. We designed hypothetical carbon credit programs with aggregated carbon offset projects and requirements of existing voluntary and compliance protocols in mind. We administered a mail survey to 992 forest landowners in Vermont’s Current Use Program utilizing best-worst choice, a novel preference elicitation technique, to elicit their preferences about these programs. We found that small forest landowners see revenue as the most important factor in a carbon credit program and the duration of the program as the least important factor. Landowners reported that shorter program duration, higher revenue, and lower withdrawal penalties positively impact their willingness to accept forest carbon credit programs. Notably, our study includes carbon credit program implementer as a key program attribute, allowing us to quantify landowners’ tradeoffs between non-profit, for-profit, and government organizations. Overall, we found that landowners significantly prefer working with a nonprofit organization. Based on monetary estimates of willingness-to-accept compensation, our results suggest that aggregated forest carbon offset projects incorporating small forest landowners could be piloted successfully in Vermont by non-profit organizations while maintaining relatively strict guidelines of existing carbon offset protocols.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere0201967
JournalPloS one
Volume13
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Small-scale forestry and carbon offset markets: An empirical study of Vermont current use forest landowner willingness to accept carbon credit programs'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this