Stuart Allen owned a swath of land in central Arkansas and in 2020 he started to explore ways to monetize it. Many property owners make money by selling timber off the their land, but Allen wanted to keep most of the timber on his property.
Allen told Talk Business & Politics that he began to study carbon offset markets, a trading system that pays for the reductions of greenhouse gases. Instead of cutting a tree down and turning it into lumber, a property owner could get carbon credits for allowing that tree to stay.
NativState, a forest carbon project development company was born.
“This is about healthy forest management. Let’s manage the timber in the most sustainable and economic way possible,” he said.
The company has about 550,000 acres in its program. The average landowner has about 500 acres but there are some with as many as 40,000 acres and some with as little as 10 acres, Allen said.
When a landowner decides to take part in the program, NativState will send in a team of foresters and wildlife biologists to examine the wildlife, trees and other foliage on the property. A forest conservation plan is developed, and the amount of carbon credits for the trees is determined.
The goal isn’t to just keep all the trees on the property, Allen said. Some trees need to be harvested to maintain sustainable forestry practices, he said.
Once the amount of carbon credits is determined, a third party audit of those credits is done. After that, the credits are registered with ACR, a non-profit carbon crediting program started by Winrock International in 1996. Two years after the credits are determined, the land owner can get paid for those credits.
NativState recently signed an agreement with TotalEnergies that will cover hundreds of thousands of acres.
The transaction includes 13 Improved Forest Management (IFM) projects located in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, U.S.A, covering 100,000 hectares (247,000 acres) owned by more than 280 private family forest landowners.
This investment will support sustainable forest practices, such as identifying and preserving high conservation value forests, implementing best management practices for streamside management zones, improving forest species diversity, and conserving wildlife corridors. It will also generate social benefits to small landowners such as forestry management education and technical support, as well as financial benefits by giving them access to voluntary carbon markets.
All carbon credits generated by the project will be certified by the ACR,, and will be acquired by TotalEnergies. After prioritizing emission avoidance and reduction, the company will use these credits from 2030 onwards to voluntarily offset part of its remaining direct Scope 1 & 2 emissions.
“TotalEnergies confirms its commitment to support the conservation and enhancement of carbon sinks, with local value creation”, said Adrien Henry, Vice President Nature Based Solutions at TotalEnergies. “We are thrilled to support NativState to scale up their operations, directly benefiting the environment and their local communities.”
“We, at NativState, are honored and deeply grateful for our partnership with TotalEnergies and our forest landowner families, which creates extraordinary opportunities to build a lasting legacy for small forest landowners in our communities across the southern United States while supporting TotalEnergies in addressing the challenges of global energy markets,” Allen said. “It is a privilege to empower these landowners to embrace sustainable forestry practices, cultivating healthier lands and stronger communities for generations to come.”