Bamboo carbon credits - Guatemala's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food (MAGA) is launching the Bamboo Carbon Credits initiative, supported by the Taiwanese embassy. The initiative aims to generate carbon credits for participants, who would look to sell them on the international market. Organisations with land management capacity, including cooperatives, associations, municipalities, community organisations, environmental organisations, and companies, are also invited to take part in the initiative, the MAGA said. Selected organisations will receive high-quality bamboo seedlings, specialised technical assistance, and support in the international certification processes. Interested parties can fill out the following form.

J-REDD+ - The Secretariat of the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) confirmed on Thursday that it has accepted a set of documents from the Brazilian state of Acre, as previously announced by the local government in January. These include a TREES Monitoring Report (TMR) for 2023 and a TREES Registration Document (TRD) covering the 2023-27 crediting period. After deductions, Acre’s jurisdictional programme (J-REDD+) expects roughly 6.5 mln credits for 2023.

ICE Futures Europe has proposed changes to the trading calendar and delivery timelines for its CORSIA-eligible and nature-based carbon credit futures, in a move aimed at aligning the contracts more closely with established compliance market conventions.

Assessing additionality in forestry carbon projects remains a key challenge, panellists said in a webinar on Thursday.

Paraguay’s government is ramping up efforts to finalise and operationalise Bilateral Agreements (BAs) with existing partners, while holding discussions with major buyer countries in international trade under Paris Agreement Article 6.2, two senior officials told Carbon Pulse.

Carbon credit registry Isometric has certified Version 2.0 of its core standard, expanding its crediting scope to super pollutants.

Stakeholders across the UK’s carbon and nature markets hold differing views on whether the government should use voluntary integrity initiatives as best practice guides, the government said on Thursday.

Carbon removal (CDR) should be treated as a limited global resource with its own allocation rules, rather than being folded into overall net emissions targets, a study published Thursday has found.

EU member states’ agricultural imports are still responsible for a significant amount of deforestation, equal to approximately 112,000 hectares annually, a new analysis has found.

The first transaction under the European Union’s new carbon removal framework has been publicly disclosed, involving carbon removal credits tied to a bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) project in Sweden.

The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and Gabon’s government will move forward with a nature conservation $200 million financing project, aimed at helping the Central African country meet its 30x30 target.

Challenges around additionality, financing, and limited demand are emerging as key constraints for scaling blue carbon markets, even as interest in high-quality projects remains strong, experts said on Thursday.

Tender open (again) - The government of Balochistan in Pakistan has reopened bids for the Khor blue carbon offset project, a large-scale initiative aimed at restoring coastal ecosystems and generating carbon credits through afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation activities. Being developed under a public-private partnership framework in collaboration with the Balochistan Public Private Partnership Authority, the project will cover 34,351 ha along the province’s coastal belt and is expected to sequester over 300,000 tonnes of CO2e annually. Bids for the project are open until Apr. 15.

A global climate investment and advisory firm has been awarded up to $25 million to develop a blended finance platform to scale a Timor-Leste community agroforestry programme with the potential to generate up to 20 mln verified carbon credits over its lifetime.

Blue carbon potential - China's national voluntary CCER programme has registered its first blue carbon project, according to a statement released this week by the China Quality Certification Center (CQC). The project, developed by government affiliate Third Institute of Oceanography, is expected to generate 32,466 carbon credits through mangrove restoration in Fujian province during 2016-23. It represents a replicable and scalable path for realising the value of marine carbon sinks in China, CQC said.

A new satellite-based monitoring tool aims to detect early-stage risks in forest carbon projects, offering developers and investors faster visibility into project performance.