Pina Earth is working with the Ecosystem Value Association e.V. to accredit our forest conversion method under the "Forest Climate Standard". This is an important step towards having our forest conversion projects certified as forest ecosystem services under the first German standard in the future.
With the newly published "Forest Condition Survey 2022" by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the topic is becoming even more relevant: 4 out of 5 trees are sick!
We asked Ronja Wolf, Forest Project Manager at Pina Earth, about the topic. In a joint interview, she explains how certifying our project type and methodology to a common standard can help accelerate German forest restoration efforts.
For the first time, forest owners in Germany can be rewarded for forest conversion in accordance with a national standard. Once we have completed the accreditation process, we will be able to expand project areas to many thousands of hectares of forest. This will accelerate the pace at which German forests can be made climate-resilient in the future.
Ronja Wolf, Forest Carbon Project Manager at Pina Earth
In the interview Ronja Wolf gives us some background information about the accreditation process of Pina Earth's forest restoration projects according to the German standard. Read the full transcript of the interview here:
What is the forest climate standard?
There are currently very few German climate protection projects, but the demand for regional projects is very high. The "Forest Climate Standard" is the first German standard for the certification of forest ecosystem services.
Why do we need a standard?
A standard is important to create transparency and show how climate protection projects are structured. It defines criteria and indicators to ensure the uniform and high quality of projects. This is important in order to strengthen the trust of project owners and certificate buyers.
The approach we are pursuing at Pina Earth is forest conversion. We want to convert endangered pure stands in Germany into climate-resilient mixed forest stands. We want to have this special type of project accredited under the "Forest Climate Standard".
How does it work?
The approval of a method - in our case forest conversion - in a specific standard involves checking and confirming the validity of the approach in accordance with the requirements of the standard. This is done through various checks in the form of independent auditors, expert surveys and a public consultation.
So what is the public consultation? This means that we, as developers of the methodology, are making all the material available to understand our project type. We are making available to the public how we calculate greenhouse gas emissions in our project. Everyone is invited to give us feedback on how we can make our methodology even better. We use this feedback to further improve our approach.
What does the process look like?
To kick off the public consultation, we held two webinars and published two papers describing our methodology in detail. One is more focused on a general project type, the second gives a deeper insight into the methodology: how we simulate the baseline and the project scenario and how we calculate the carbon stored in the forest in both scenarios. All these documents are now available online for the public. Anyone can give and submit feedback via a feedback form. At the end of the feedback period, we will collect all views and suggestions and use them to further develop our methodology.
We will then go through the next steps to accredit our methodology according to the German "Forest Climate Standard". An important next step includes a pilot phase in which we will develop several pilot projects in German forests.
What is the result?
If we successfully complete all steps of the accreditation process, we will have reached an important milestone. This means that, for the first time, forest owners in Germany can be rewarded for forest conversion in accordance with a national standard. Once we have achieved this, we will be able to expand the project areas to many thousands of hectares of forest. This will accelerate the pace at which German forests are made more climate-resilient in the future.
Would you like to find out more?
All materials, including the recordings of the webinars, can be found here.
Dr. Christine Rzepka has been Marketing & Communications Lead at Pina Earth since 2023. In her articles, she shares recommendations and practical insights on credible sustainability communication and provides insights into Pina Earth's technology-based approach to regional climate protection. Before joining Pina Earth, she worked in other start-ups in the FinTech and EdTech space, in technology consulting and in academia as part of her PhD in Information Systems.
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