Carbon Real: a land conservation model in which nature benefits from carbon markets and highly reliable greenhouse gas measurements

Generating methodologies to make high-integrity carbon offsets  is a global challenge. This requires accurate techniques to measure both ecosystem carbon stocks and fluxes. Even though some of these technologies have been available for some time, such as Eddy Covariance and LiDAR, the market is still in need of a model that integrates them and can be trusted by both carbon offset buyers and society. Here we present the Carbon Real model, which is based on accurate on-site measurements of aboveground biomass, real-time monitoring of CO2 fluxes and comprehensive traceability and transparency, to generate high-quality carbon offsets that can help the conservation of nature. The conservation of private lands is secured by the signature of a land conservation easement for a minimum of 25 years, while part of the economic benefits is aimed at funding local community projects. We present the first results of applying our conservation model in the well-preserved forests of the Chilean Patagonia, one of the last pristine areas in the world.