NZ Rainforest Carbon Offsetting

Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett has signaled that the private sector will need to play an active role in helping New Zealand reduce its carbon emissions. At the same time the integrity of the Government’s carbon offset supply from the Ukraine and Russia has been called into question by various groups.

But there is carbon with integrity in the New Zealand carbon market, and a new charity – Ekos is supplying high quality carbon offsets not from Russia, but from an internationally certified rainforest carbon project right here in New Zealand.

Founder and Executive Director Dr Sean Weaver said that he established Ekos to supply boutique rainforest carbon offsets to New Zealand businesses seeking to go carbon neutral.

“We produce all our carbon offsets ourselves through our own internationally certified, community-based rainforest carbon projects in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Our offset projects reduce CO2 emissions and are packed with biodiversity and community development co-benefits. Our New Zealand project is New Zealand’s first and only rainforest carbon project located in western Southland."

“We are giving rainforest landowners the option to create and sell carbon offsets instead of timber as a way to generate revenue from their natural forests and channel that money into conservation management.”

“Because we produce our own offsets, we can ensure their quality and integrity. They are certified to international carbon offset standards, and because they are produced close to home, business customers have the option to visit these projects themselves.”

Ekos is also structured to keep costs down for participating businesses.

“We want to remove some of the price barriers to participating in voluntary carbon offsetting. A small business with a city office and a carbon footprint dominated by flights might have an annual carbon footprint of around 40 tonnes. At our asking price of $20.94 per tonnne this is only going to cost $800-$900 for the offsets. Add the carbon footprint measurement to the equation and the whole cost of going carbon neutral can be well under $2k annually.”

“You can make carbon accounting dismally complex, painful and expensive, or you can make it simple, pain-free and low cost. Our goal is to make it simple and low cost to make carbon management easy for businesses,” Dr Weaver said.

Ekos is the only supplier of New Zealand rainforest carbon offsets because they own the only supply programme that produces them. Ekos also supplies rainforest carbon offsets from its Pacific Island projects in Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

“Our Pacific rainforest carbon offset projects projects are focused on delivering community economic development, emission reductions, climate resilience, and biodiversity protection for rural Pacific Island peoples. Our Fiji, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands projects are the first of their kind in each of these countries.”

Dr Weaver has a PhD in forest ecology and over 25 years experience in rainforest conservation financing. He formerly ran the undergraduate Environmental Studies Programme at Victoria University but then “snuck out” to establish a rainforest carbon charity to respond to the climate change challenge. He has negotiated for Vanuatu at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the World Bank, and helped Pacific Island governments build their national forest carbon management programmes.

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