Carbon offsets - especially forest carbon offsets - are a tricky subject. We sold carbon offsets to a couple individuals and a development tourism NGO to offset a wedding and their air travel, respectively. But are the carbon offsets certified? No. PE's credits are not certified because we can't afford the $4000 to get a certification and the yearly follow up afterward. With only 20 hectares under management, Planting Empowerment only sequesters 120 tons of carbon per year (6 tons/ha). At $10/ton, it doesn't make economic sense for us to pay for certification. Luckily, the purchasers of our credits believe in our project and understand the methodology we used to find the amount of carbon sequestered.

That said, we will not be selling carbon credits in the near future. Even though they generate a return for our tree owners on the front end (and sales commission for PE) we think it is important to understand better the amount of carbon being sequestered by the trees. We are taking at least one year off to build a reserve of carbon to insure against future "leaks". When a larger plantation project comes online it will be economically viable to certify the credits and sell once again.