In Nova Scotia, forests are potential sources of biodiversity, sustainable livelihoods and long-term climate change mitigation.
Yet despite that potential, thousands of acres of forest are cut down each year in the name of short-term profits.
A company called Growing Forests now aims to combat that immediate threat, using ecological forestry and carbon offsets as an alternative to unsustainable practices.
While the project has the potential to protect the long-term health of the forest (and the planet), Dale Perst, CEO of Growing Forests, says that at its core the company is motivated by a shared interest in rural communities: protecting and restore forests and maintain local ownership of land.
“Carbon is just how we pay for that to happen,” he says.
Growing Forests was born from a refrain Perst would hear from visiting friends across Nova Scotia. Based in Musquodoboit Harbour, Perst has experience including working with environmental charities and, before starting Growing Forests, he ran a carbon-focused forestry business, including a small firewood business.
Sitting around the kitchen table, he was told that the owner of a forest in the area had passed away or moved into a nursing home, and that the forest, once sold (or inherited by a family member facing a substantial capital gains bill) tax—was quickly eliminated.
As forest owners age, this trend has accelerated.
Given that almost 50 per cent of the province’s forests are in the hands of small forest plot owners, this has the potential to affect a significant proportion of the landscape; Currently, between 20,000 and 40,000 hectares of private land are cleared each year, Perst says.
With the goal of protecting and restoring #forests and maintaining local ownership of land, Growing Forests has already raised $750,000 from investors and purchased approximately 900 acres of forest from #forest owners. #climate #tradeoffs
“The natural inclination you felt when you sat around those tables was, ‘Surely there’s something we can do about this if we could pool our resources,’” he says.
The result was Growing Forests, which has already raised $750,000 from 75 small investors. With this, the company has purchased approximately 900 acres of forest from forest owners.
One of those landowners is Charles Thompson, whose family forest is located in Middle River, Cape Breton. As Thompson, who is in his 70s, grew older, he began looking at options for the future of his forest.
“I regret having to sell it, in a way,” he says.
But since I had to sell it, I didn’t want it destroyed either.
Then in April of this year, Thompson attended the annual timber growers conference, where he stumbled upon the Growing Forests booth.
“I wanted someone who wasn’t going to tear everything down, and it sounds like he has a good idea,” he says.
The Growing Forests model continues the legacy of small forest owners by practicing an ecological forestry model intended to sustain the harvest for generations; income which is then used to help pay for the purchase of land.
But it is not the only long-term principle applied in the Growing Forests model.
The Wabanaki-Acadian Forest, the mixed forest that covers the landscape in eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, is naturally resistant to large-scale disturbances from sources such as insects, fires, and wind storms (although, as demonstrated the Nova Scotia wildfires of 2023, the forest is not immune to the effects of climate change). This ability to remain stable for centuries makes Nova Scotia forests an ideal partner for sequestering carbon.
Growing Forests is currently working on the certification process to offer offsets based on their forests, which would in turn contribute more money towards land purchases.
In recent years, forest-based offset initiatives have been criticized for disempowering local communities (especially in low-income countries) or for failing to deliver on their promise. A 2023 investigation by The Guardian and others found that 90 percent of offsets sold by a leading offset certifier were “useless,” meaning they did not generate any significant carbon reductions.
Perst is aware of these risks, but says the company’s approach offers a different model, focusing on community ownership and local priorities around reducing clear-cutting.
“I truly believe we are one of the best examples out there of how communities can coordinate and mobilize to use carbon markets in a way that restores the local environment,” he says.
Growing Forests is now looking to raise additional funds and plans to begin selling offset credits this summer.
Perst adds that, ultimately, the vision of Growing Forests focuses on a conceptual shift, seeing the forest not simply as a place from which resources can be extracted (whether wood or carbon credits) but as a partner in the creation of a sustainable future.
“Forests, especially in the immediate term, are our greatest allies against climate change, and we can do much more.”
This story is shared by the Climate Story Network, an initiative of Climate Focus, a nonprofit organization dedicated to covering stories about community climate solutions.