The ‘State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2009’ report was released by Ecosystem Marketplace. It's a landmark report that appears the best attempt yet at a comprehensive estimate of the volumes and value in the forest carbon sector worldwide over its 20-year history. It covers the market from the first projects in the late 1980s up to mid-2009. Although dated 2009, it was released in January 2010.

ESM says its doesn’t claim to have accounted for every forest carbon transaction but has surveyed widely in the market. It found 226 projects past and present covering 2.1 million hectares in 40 countries involving 61 project developers and 34 intermediaries. These activities bankrolled by carbon finance were dominated by afforestation & reforestation (A/R), improved forest management and avoided deforestation, increasingly known as ‘REDD’.

The report finds that over the two decades since the first projects emerged, the forest carbon sector has transacted a total of 20.8 million tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2), including two million tonnes in secondary trading, which realised $149 million. But two-thirds of forest carbon transacted volumes have occurred in the last three years since the voluntary carbon market began to take off.

Full summary: Forest carbon market: 20mT in 20 years

Downloads
Full report: State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2009: Taking Root and Branching Out [PDF 6.4 MB]

State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2009 – Executive Summary [PDF 1.3 MB]