How It Works

We unlock the financial potential of carbon markets so you can advance your long-term financial and conservation legacy.

While carbon markets are complicated, we make profiting from them simple. By applying our team’s collective 35+ years of combined carbon project experience across more than 50 projects and 14 million forested acres, we design and manage all aspects of the Forest Carbon Works Conserve program, handle all reporting, and sell the premium-grade carbon credits our members’ land earns on the Voluntary Carbon Market.

Here’s how it works:

1. Apply Online

Create an account, then follow the prompts to complete the full application (if you don’t know all the details, call us for help!).

2. Get comfortable with the details

Discuss the details of membership with your Forest Carbon Works representative. Take care to ask as many questions as needed to get comfortable with all aspects, including the payment level for which your land qualifies.

3. Confirm your interest and request a Membership Offer

Confirm with your membership advisor that you understand all program details and would like to receive a formal Membership Offer.

4. Review and sign your offer

On receipt of a formal membership offer, review, sign and return the Membership Agreement to us. On receipt of your signed offer, you will receive a Down Payment within 30 days!

5. Get paid every year

After the first year, we pay you annually in exchange for preserving and caring for your forest in accordance with the requirements of our program!

How much can I earn?

Payment offers for qualifying landowners are based on their forest land’s carbon accretion rate – the more productive their forest is, the more we can offer them. Some regions of the country tend to be significantly more productive than others, so the best way to find out what you can earn is to apply!

A down payment is made within 30 days of signing the Membership Agreement, and – once the first year is completed – payments are made annually thereafter until year 25, at which time you or your successors can opt in to additional 5-year payment terms up to 5 more times, for a total of up to 50 years’ worth of annual payments. These payments are guaranteed to all members in good standing, every year.

List of requirements

Is there a revenue share option?

Yes. If our members want to participate financially in the significant upside expectations for carbon credit pricing over time, they can opt into a credit revenue share annual payment model, usually within the first two years of membership. More productive land tends to generate a better return for landowners under revenue sharing model, whereas our standard annual payment model tends to be better for landowners when forestland is less productive.

We work with our members to assess actual market price growth trends and decide whether revenue share or standard payments are likely to be more profitable for them. And because we know open markets involve price fluctuations, we allow our members to change payment models every five years (i.e., at each 5-year anniversary of their membership).

Forest Carbon Works Conserve is unique in offering landowners the ability to participate in the expected significant potential future growth of the carbon market. We are uniquely partnered with our landowners in this way because we believe it is important to ensure they get a fair deal for the entire lifecycle of their commitment.

Forest and tree tops

Offer customization for larger acreages

Owners of larger acreages of forested landholdings (typically 2000 or more forested acres) and/or of forested land in especially highly productive areas can arrange to have us perform an on-site analysis if our initial remote assessment indicates a likelihood that doing so will result in our ability to make a higher payment offer. We also may be able to incorporate planned harvest amounts into your offer structure, assuming you can provide removal volumes and acreages.

By the same token, if remote assessment indicates a significantly lower-than-average productivity level, we may still be able to develop a customized payment offer provided we are able to obtain sufficiently reliable forest productivity data. For more information on this scenario, please consult your membership advisor.

In either scenario, our staff is ready to to work with your land management team (consulting foresters, attorneys, financial advisors, land stewards and managers, etc.) to advise you on the best course to program membership.

What are the membership prerequisites and responsibilities?

Membership prerequisites
Member responsibilities

Ready to get started?

Create an account and complete our land assessment application. Once your forest is qualified, we’ll send you a Membership Offer!

Apply now