La Belle Forêt is a solution for both forests and companies. It’s for all of us who would like to contribute. La Belle Forêt generates new revenue for the forest, allowing for greater virtuous management and adaptation to climate change. La Belle Forêt offers the only biodiversity-enriched carbon credits from the French forest that are verified, certified, and immediately available.

For decades, the forest has benefited from an increase in CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Trees have grown faster, but today our CO2 emissions have reached such a level that they are causing climate change and increasing the frequency and severity of droughts and higher temperatures. These weather events weaken trees and lead to massive dieback of certain – particularly sensitive – species. Moreover, the increase in commercial activity promotes the introduction of pathogens such as fungi or insects that can cause real devastation in some forests.

La Belle Forêt's ambition is to increase the perennial storage of CO2 in the forest while improving the state of biodiversity. To achieve this, it is necessary to prevent the CO2 contained in the soil from being released by clear-cuts. These clear-cuts must be reserved for exceptional cases (forest stands damaged by fire, storms or pathogens, etc.). La Belle Forêt defends continuous cover management because forest renewal is done progressively by ensuring a permanent landscape, this continuity favors habitat preservation of the most forest-dependent species. A mixture of species reduces the risk of vast pathogens outbreaks, which limits the possibility of the destruction of a plot. In addition, the diversity of species introduces a variety of growths and maturities, or in other words, more varied environments being able to support more species.

Of course, sparingly introducing new species better adapted to a rapidly changing climate, under continuous cover, should be considered. Planting trees by mixing types, such as after a health crisis or a powerful gale has decimated hectares of forest, must be possible and sometimes even essential. But it is necessary to practice delicate silviculture - mix species and age groups, always honor the continuous cover management, and take care of each tree. This guarantees better resistance to climate change and parasites, rich biodiversity, and a resilient ecosystem in which the trees help each other and nourishes the soil. Like permaculture, this forestry produces a virtuous cycle between soil richness, biodiversity, and wood production. It could be called perma-silviculture.

La Belle Forêt suppliers are forest owners and forest managers who commit for 30 years to an approach that aims to preserve forest carbon sinks and store more carbon while protecting biodiversity. These efforts are financed by carbon credits and help forests to cope with climate change.

La Belle Forêt's buyers are companies that want to contribute to carbon neutrality by investing in forestry projects through the purchase of local, virtuous, transparent, and certified carbon credits issued from French forests and charged with biodiversity. Those carbon credits allow them to communicate transparently about their climate strategies, to say what they do and to do what they say.

A carbon credit is a unit equivalent to one ton of CO2. When a project sequesters carbon or reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it can deliver carbon credits. These projects contribute to global carbon neutrality and come from multiple sectors of activity: agriculture and farming; forest management; energy; waste management, etc. Each carbon credit is unique and recorded in a registry until it is used to offset GHG emissions. A carbon credit can only be used once.

Carbon offsetting consists of actively reducing a company's carbon footprint by counterbalancing its residual and unpredictable emissions through the financing of sustainable carbon sequestration projects. It is also referred to as a contribution to global carbon neutrality by 2050, by developing projects that promote the sequestration of GHG emissions.

Initially, we evaluate the number of carbon credits that a forest can generate, which corresponds to the difference in tonnage of CO2 stored in the forest between a timber harvest scenario and a "carbon-oriented" management (stands maintenance). It is this difference that generates additionality and therefore carbon credits. We then apply discounts related to the climate risk of each stand and retain only those that should be able to adapt to climate change. The quality of these carbon credits (biodiversity co-benefits) is then rated according to 60 criteria. The price of La Belle Forêt's carbon credits is indexed to this rating. Over time, the qualification and quantification may change, so new measurements in the forest are made on a documented basis every year, and every five years in situ by independent experts. These principles and methods are verified and certified by the best individuals recognized worldwide in the field.

Forest carbon is stored in the healthy wood of trees (trunk, branches, roots), in the soil, and dead wood. For the aerial part, forest carbon is measured either by statistical inventories or by field inventories. Trees capture CO2 (and O2 release) and the carbon is permanently stored in the wood so long as it is not damaged.

Measuring biodiversity remains a delicate exercise and the results of species inventories can fluctuate according to the year or even the season. This is why La Belle Forêt has chosen to take into account the actions in favor of biodiversity that have been implemented in the forests. To do this, we evaluate 60 criteria divided into eight themes: maturity and aging of stands; silviculture and resilience of the forest; species and stands; harvesting methods; forest-game balance; relationships with forestry stakeholders; maintenance of particular environments (wet or open), and specific actions and agreements in favor of biodiversity preservation. This methodology has been established by the leading French ecologists.

A major part of forest biodiversity depends on old and dead trees. However, silviculture, which primarily responds to the criteria of wood use and transformation, leads to the harvesting of very young stands, well before the final stages of the forest cycle. To improve the condition of many species, it is necessary to increase the proportion of large wood, maintain more dead wood on the ground, keep trees with holes or cracks, and preserve islands left in free evolution (without intervention). Additionally, it is necessary to limit the multiple aggressions that contribute to the decline of biodiversity, limit the use of pesticides and ban insecticides that destroy the food chain, and prohibit the substantial feeding of wild boars that tirelessly hunt down the microfauna of the soil (insects, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, bird nests). Finally, more specific actions such as the establishment of quiet zones for large birds, or the maintenance of moors and clearings favorable to specific species may be necessary.

Climate change and biodiversity are inextricably intertwined, with the latter being adversely impacted by the climate crisis, something which is of anthropogenic origin. The degradation of biodiversity and the destruction of life in general also have an impact on the climate. For example, degraded forests are less efficient at storing carbon and therefore mitigating climate change. Don’t just take our word for it, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and experts at the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) agree. The good news is that the forest is the cradle of biodiversity, and a well ecologically managed forest is advantageous. La Belle Forêt gives biodiversity a major role in the rating we give to each forest. We do not offer companies carbon credits alone, but rather carbon credits that are virtuous because they are charged with biodiversity.

All La Belle Forêt's projects, as well as La Belle Forêt's methodology for calculating the volume of carbon credits and scoring biodiversity co-benefits, are verified and certified by the world's leading experts in the field.

The vast majority of funds go back to the forest owner and finance carbon sequestration as well as actions taken to adapt their forest to climate change and protect biodiversity. La Belle Forêt uses a portion of the money to cover the costs of measurements, verification, and certification as well as its operating and marketing costs.

La Belle Forêt does not offer forest management services, this is not its job, nor will it ever be. La Belle Forêt works with forest managers to structure and market ecosystem services, including carbon storage and biodiversity. The personal and privileged relationship between the owner and his manager is strictly preserved.