Planting trees is the most familiar idea in carbon offsetting, and reforestation is today’s main source of removal credits. Trees take up CO₂ as they grow and store it in wood, roots and soil. The hard parts are proving the trees wouldn’t have grown anyway and keeping them standing for decades. This page covers how ARR projects work, the risks, prices and the standards to look for. It is part of our guide to carbon credit project types.
How reforestation projects work
ARR stands for afforestation, reforestation and revegetation. Verra’s VM0047 methodology applies to activities that establish, increase or restore vegetative cover in non-forest areas, or enhance forest carbon stocks in areas with existing forest coverSource 2.
Projects measure how much carbon the new vegetation stores over time, compared with what would have grown without the project. VM0047 offers two approachesSource 2:
- Area-based, which uses a dynamic performance benchmark, based on remote sensing and plot sampling, to test additionality and set the crediting baseline at each verification.
- Census-based, for dispersed planting that does not change land use, such as urban forestry and agroforestry.
Matched shop
Buy reforestation credits
- Registry serial numbers
- Retirement certificate
- Project documentation
A removal credit
ARR credits are removals: Verra labels VM0047’s outcome as “Removals”Source 2. Ecosystem Marketplace reports that ARR represented 99% of transaction volume for pure removal credits over the past yearSource 6.
The IPCC lists afforestation and reforestation among the only widely practised carbon dioxide removal methods todaySource 7. Removals are still a small part of what buyers retire. Citing Berkeley Carbon Trading Project data to December 2023, the Oxford Principles report that only 3.3% of credits retired across the four major registries were pure removals, all from afforestation, reforestation and revegetation or biochar projectsSource 8. For the trade-offs between removal and avoidance, see removal vs avoidance credits.
Permanence and reversal risk
A tonne stored in a tree is only stored while the tree, or the forest, survives.
- The IPCC estimates storage time scales of decades to centuries for methods that store carbon in vegetation, and says this storage can be reversed by human or natural disturbances and is prone to climate change impactsSource 7.
- The Oxford Offsetting Principles add that changing land use, political or economic pressures, and climate risks such as fire, disease and drought all raise the risk of stored carbon being re-emittedSource 8.
Standards respond with buffers. The ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles require measures to address and compensate reversals where there is a riskSource 11. Verra’s AFOLU Non-Permanence Risk Tool assesses potential losses over 100 years to size each project’s buffer contributionSource 10.
Buffers can run short
Buffers only work if they are big enough. A study of the buffer pool in California’s compliance forest offset programme, a different market from voluntary ARR credits, found that wildfires had used up at least 95% of the buffer contribution meant to cover all fire risk for 100 years in less than a decadeSource 9.
Other integrity issues
- Additionality. Would the trees have grown anyway? The ICVCM limited its approval of ACR’s ARR methodology to natural forest establishment and restoration, because it met the additionality requirements only for those projectsSource 3.
- Monocultures. The Oxford Principles warn that monoculture plantations of non-native species are much more vulnerable, may be designed with eventual reversal in mind (for example when timber is felled for paper), and should be avoidedSource 8.
- Ecosystem design. The Oxford Principles say climate resilience can be improved by better ecosystem health, biodiversity and connectivity, and point to the IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions as a set of principles for high-integrity projects with a low risk of reversalSource 8.
- Land and people. The IPCC finds that afforestation, when poorly implemented, can harm biodiversity, food and water security, local livelihoods and the rights of Indigenous Peoples, while well-designed reforestation can enhance themSource 7.
Trees planted is not carbon stored
“One tree per purchase” promises say little. A credit should state tonnes of CO₂e removed, verified under a named methodology, with a buffer contribution and a registry serial number.
What do reforestation credits cost?
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| Year | Average price (USD per tCO₂e) |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 17.15 |
| 2024 | 20.44 |
As of Oct 2026
Ecosystem Marketplace reports ARR prices rose 19% in 2024, while volume fell 21%Source 6. That is more than three times the 2024 REDD+ average of $6.03Source 6.
Newer data splits the price by quality. In Sylvera’s data on credits retired in Q3 2026, ARR credits it rates BBB or higher cost 1.83 times as much as those rated BB or lower, in line with the roughly twofold premium it has seen every quarter since Q1 2025Source 12:
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| Rating | Average price (USD per tCO₂e) |
|---|---|
| BBB or higher | 23.47 |
| BB or lower | 12.80 |
As of Sept 2026 · Source: [12] Sylvera, Carbon Market Data Snapshot: Q3 2026
See carbon credit prices for the full snapshot.
Standards and methodologies
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| Methodology | ICVCM decision |
|---|---|
| Verra VM0047 v1.0 and v1.1 | Approved; v1.1 approved October 2025 |
| ACR Afforestation & Reforestation of Degraded Lands v1–1.2 | Approved July 2025, natural forest only |
| Isometric Reforestation Protocol v1.1 | Approved February 2026 |
As of Oct 2026
Standards named in this table
Verra
ACR
Isometric
Logos identify the organisations named; no endorsement is implied.
Verra states both VM0047 versions are approvedSource 2; the ICVCM approved v1.1 in October 2025Source 4, ACR’s methodology with its condition in July 2025Source 3 and Isometric’s protocol without conditions in February 2026Source 5. Ecosystem Marketplace noted that no CCP-approved ARR credits were yet available for trading when its 2025 report was published, and that the first VM0047 ARR project was registered in April 2025Source 6. New methodologies take time to turn into issued credits, so expect limited supply of labelled ARR credits for a while.
Buying reforestation credits
- Check the methodology and whether the credits carry the CCP label.
- Ask about species, land and community arrangements, and how long the project commits to maintain the forest.
- Check the buffer contribution and the issuance date, since growth takes years.
- Verify retirement; our guide to how to verify carbon credits shows how.
Compare with forest protection (REDD+) and blue carbon, or with more durable biochar.