Department of Forestry Forest Carbon and Climate Program

August Round Up

Welcome to the Forests & Climate Round Up curated by the Forest Carbon and Climate Program in Michigan State University’s Department of Forestry

This bi-monthly newsletter invites students, researchers, and practitioners to share resources with our community. We welcome upcoming events, current happenings, short perspectives, new tools or data, or any other type of announcement related to forests and climate. We would like this to be a community-driven newsletter that highlights the great work of our partners, collaborators, and community members.

To submit content, please use this form.

Questions: forestc@msu.edu

ARTICLES

Three Decades of Scientific Debate on the Additionality of Forest Carbon Offsets: Are We Going in Circles?

New article explores how scholarly debate and technological advances have sought to address additionality in carbon markets potentially leading to unfortunate and unintended consequences for climate governance systems

Carbon markets and other market-based instruments are critical to climate governance and achieving net-zero emission goals. Central to this is the debate on additionality and its relationship to market integrity. Since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, key moments in the additionality debate include operationalizing additionality in early market mechanisms, the emergence of avoided conversion, deforestation, and degradation schemes, and newer, more innovative approaches that promise to address the current credibility issue observed in carbon markets that primarily rely on advances in the monitoring and measuring of forest carbon at finer spatial scales.

This review attempts to grapple with the fact that despite technological advances and increasingly sophisticated approaches to address additionality, additionality can never be truly proven thus, challenges persist. The authors conclude that since the scholarly discussion around additionality has become circular and has lent unintended support to the non-transformation of the global climate governance systems. Therefore, they argue that the goals and promises of additionality should no longer be sought after as current structures have enabled over-crediting and the ongoing carbon market legitimacy crises. Nevertheless, market-based mechanisms remain key to climate governance globally, leaving the authors with the final question of is it time to stop chasing additionality and instead focus on other alternative opportunities for transformation to achieve net-zero emission goals?

Read the entire article here.

PERSPECTIVE

Forest Fire Cause, Effect, and Long-Term Solutions

This article examines historical data on US and Canadian forest area burned, fire-fighting expenditures, and discussions around the causes of the increases in area burned since the 1990s, including past management and climate change. The article recommends future actions including spending more money fighting fires, especially in Canada, increasing forest management including tree harvesting, developing policies to reverse the downward trend in wood harvesting across North America, rethinking additionality and permanence in carbon offsets to incentivize carbon and wood products, improving protocols for forest sector GHG accounting, and examining management of wilderness areas for potential strategies to adapt to climate change.

Read the entire article here.

EVENTS

Climate Week NYC

September 20-27, 2026

2026 SAF National Convention

October 6-9 – Tacoma, Washington

2026 Northeastern & Southern Mensurationists Joint Annual Meeting

November 8-10, 2026 – Portland, ME

JOBS

Postdoctoral Scholar-Fixed Term

Michigan State University Forest Carbon and Climate Program & the Forest Measurements and Modeling Lab

We're seeking a postdoctoral scholar for a two-year project focused on measuring the structure and productivity of temperate agroforestry systems in the midwestern US. Project focal areas include use of terrestrial laser scanning technology to capture structural and functional elements of different agroforestry practices and development of protocols for quantifying productivity of such systems.

Assistant Professor: Socio-Ecological Systems of Forested Landscapes

Oregon State University

OSU seeks a scholar whose research and teaching examine interactions among people, institutions, and forested ecosystems, including areas such as social, behavioral, economic, organizational, conservation, recreation, climate solutions, or other human dimensions of natural resource management. We also welcome candidates who bring interdisciplinary perspectives and innovative approaches to understanding and addressing contemporary environmental challenges through the integration of social and biophysical sciences.

Programme Manager Monitoring & Evaluation

Forest Stewardship Council

The Programme Manager Monitoring & Evaluation plays a critical role in designing and leading FSC’s monitoring and evaluation framework, with a special focus on outcome orientation in forest management certification. The position drives performance monitoring, impact evaluations, and evidence-based decision-making across the FSC system, while leading the Monitoring & Evaluation Programme and collaborating with FSC Network Partners, researchers, and stakeholders worldwide.

RESEARCH, RESOURCES, & TOOLS

RESEARCH

Traceability in forest exploitation: A study on sustainable management in concessions of Ucayali and Huanuco, Peru

Sustainable forest management in the Peruvian Amazon faces significant challenges due to illegal logging and inadequate control over timber supply chains. This study evaluates the implementation of forest traceability systems in concessions located in Ucayali and Huánuco regions, Peru, with the aim of improving the legality and sustainability of timber exploitation. Our objectives were to (1) assess the effectiveness of traceability in optimizing timber resource management, (2) measure its impact on reducing illegal logging, and (3) enhance supply chain transparency. We employed a mixed-methods approach combining field data collection with technology integration, utilizing tools such as GPS and RFID for real-time monitoring. Our results showed that the implementation of traceability systems significantly increased operational efficiency, reduced timber loss during transportation, and improved transparency in supply chains. However, challenges such as geographical complexity in Huánuco limited the potential benefits of traceability. These findings highlight the need for tailored strategies that address both technological and operational barriers to ensure sustainable forest management in the region. This study underscores the importance of integrating traceability into broader forest governance frameworks to combat illegal logging and promote sustainable exploitation practices.

RESEARCH

Impact of Farm Exclosure, Tillage Practices, and Cropping Patterns on Soil and Teff Grain Nutrient Status in Semiarid Ethiopia

Land degradation and climate change are closely linked challenges across the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa, where declining soil fertility threatens agricultural productivity, ecosystem resilience, and forest landscape restoration. This study evaluates the effects of farm exclosures, tillage practices, and cropping patterns on soil health and grain nutrient status in semiarid areas, demonstrating that farm exclosures significantly improve soil fertility and grain nutritional quality while restoring ecological functions. The findings highlight the potential of farm exclosures as nature-based solutions that support climate change adaptation and mitigation by reducing land degradation, enhancing biodiversity, improving watershed health, facilitating natural forest regeneration, and contributing to long-term carbon sequestration, with important implications for sustainable land management and forest restoration.

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