Tree_credits
Tree credits
Reward for climate-friendly agroforestry
Tree credits is concept of community-based agroforestry whereby a tree planter or caretaker's climate services are rewarded. The system has been developed in response to the need for a simple way to get carbon credits to the individual planter with a minimum of overheads, and to simplify implementation and monitoring of such projects by using for-profit methods, much like microfinance.
Tree credit systems have been incorporated into stormwater management programs for development sites at local, state and national levels. Calculation methods vary, but all programs encourage the preservation of existing trees as well as planting of new trees at these sites as a method to reduce stormwater runoff.[1] Many of these systems assess the benefit of individual trees, but additional interest is growing for ways to assess the benefits of cumulative tree cover over entire sites. These credit systems aim to quantify the services provided by trees to treat stormwater and preserve water quality, air quality, and carbon sequestration.[2][3] The credits allow site designers to subtract area from total site area or impervious area when calculating water quality volume (WQv) and/or recharge volume (REv). Credits are not calculated consistently across these systems due to the fact that tree benefits can vary with size, species, climate, site etc. Two common types of credit are impervious surface reduction and volume reduction. [4]