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Forest carbon offsets and related (often voluntary) markets have lost credibility, because multiple studies found offset-generating initiatives to have massively underdelivered. Meanwhile certification bodies are revising monitoring and validation methodologies and tropical forest conservation remains severely underfunded. After revisiting the main causes of the credibility crisis, this presentation focusses on technological and institutional conditions that must be in place to rebuild trust in forest carbon initiatives and discusses alternative models for carbon and conservation finance.

Jan B?rner is Professor for Economics of Sustainable Land Use and Bioeconomy at the University of Bonn, Germany and has applied research experience in Latin America, Africa, and Europe. His current research agenda expands from the evaluation and assessment of environmental policies and programs with a focus on land use change to the role of global trade, consumption patterns, and technological change in affecting ecosystem services provision from ecologically sensitive landscapes.