Landowners
Landowners need revenue to conduct good land stewardship. The Climate Trust offers carbon market solutions that help them do just that.
From Tribal lands to family ranches, landowners and managers face increasing financial pressure from a variety of sources—from land development to rising management costs to climate change risk. That’s why we leverage carbon mitigation strategies that support their rural livelihoods and land management goals.
We have been rolling up our sleeves and working alongside landowners for over 25 years to listen and put their needs first. We are independently audited and stand by our work and partners with a track record of success in grasslands, IFM, and reforestation carbon projects. We meet with landowners at the very first site visit and manage every step along the way—all the way up to marketing their project’s carbon offsets and negotiating the best price.
Our reputation in the carbon market means that buyers trust us to reliably deliver high-quality offsets, demanding the appropriate price. Our small portfolio of projects also means that we don’t sell hundreds of projects at once. We represent a handful of high-impact projects on the market and prioritize the landowners we work with as true partners and their individual projects as critical to the progress of realizing a climate resilient future for all.
Grasslands Owners & Ranchers
We work with grassland owners and family ranchers who want to generate a new revenue stream to support their ranching livelihood and conserve their rangelands for generations to come.
We provide upfront funding for conservation agreements—called easements—that restrict the conversion of grassland into cropland on the property deed. By putting grasslands under conservation easements, landowners agree to keep carbon stored in their soil by avoiding the carbon emissions associated with farming. This results in the generation of carbon offsets that The Climate Trust sells on behalf of ranchers.
Carbon offsets provide important revenue for ranchers even during times of drought. When drought occurs and herd sizes may be reduced, carbon volumes and revenue increase for landowners. As the nation’s leading developer of grasslands carbon projects, we have the experience to support ranchers as they achieve their land management goals, continue to work on their lands, and conserve the land and prairie habitats that have existed for millennia.
Forest Owners & Managers
We work with public and private landowners, land trusts, and Tribal nations who are looking to restore or manage their forests for carbon. Whether a forest has been devastated by wildfire and needs replanting or a working forest seeks management strategies to generate carbon revenue, The Climate Trust has the forestry, carbon accounting, and project development expertise needed to manage complex projects.
We provide upfront financing for capital intensive reforestation or the development of improved forest management projects, and as a nonprofit, have patient capital that can wait for trees to grow. Working closely with each partner, we learn about their land restoration or management goals and aim to support historically marginalized landowners who are on the frontlines of climate change. We have decades of experience managing complex projects with a variety of landowners and have partnered with Tribes, public entities, and land trusts—who have their own set of stakeholders that must be informed throughout the entire project.
By ensuring that more landowners can benefit from the carbon market, we’re providing ways for forest owners to store more carbon in their trees as they grow. And while timber harvesting is still allowed, carbon projects can add flexibility to forest management and timber harvesting through the generation of carbon revenue. With a focus on carbon market access and climate vulnerable communities, we are dedicated to partnering with forest owners to improve climate resilience for forest ecosystems and the frontline communities and diverse plant and animal species that depend on them.
Our mission and vision
As a nonprofit organization, our investments are driven by climate impact and put landowners first. We work alongside our partners to develop and fund projects that support grassland conservation, reforestation, and improved forest management strategies.