Marketing the forest's climate performance through forest climate projects

Three approaches and two markets

For forests and timber, Keller distinguishes three effects: CO₂ uptake in the forest, the substitution of other materials and the carbon sink in timber used in buildings. In the compliance emissions market, forests play no role. On the voluntary market, forest owners can market two approaches through the association Wald-Klimaschutz Schweiz. In the first, they commit to leaving an agreed volume of timber in the forest for 30 years, which earns around CHF 35 per hectare per year for 30 cubic metres. Such projects pay off from 1,000 hectares. In the second, they give up harvesting entirely for 50 years.

There is no need to stop using timber.

Examples from the canton of Zurich

The city of Winterthur counts the performance of its forest climate project towards its own carbon balance, and the municipality of Bauma commissioned a feasibility study. WaldZürich was working on a pool to give all organised forest owners access to such a project. Finally, Keller looks at timber used in construction: forest owners could in future be paid for part of the forest's climate performance there too. The Timber Finance Initiative was working on such a product.

How Timber Carbon sees it

In the 2024 pilot phase, forest districts also received payments from credit revenues, as summarised in our article on Moneycab. Timber Carbon, launched in 2026 as a spin-off of Timber Finance, quantifies, certifies and monetises the carbon removed in mass timber buildings as carbon removal credits on the voluntary carbon market. The article in Bündner Wald explains how this can support sawlog management.