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Received by internet on September 5, 2000
certified original (with signature) received on September 11, 2000

 

1. Entity and Contact Information

Applicant
Mark Kean, President
Mikro-Tek Inc.
P.O. Box 2120
Timmins, Ontario P4N 7X8
Phone: 705-268-3536
Fax: 705-268-7411
e-mail: mikrotek@onlink.net

Contact Persons
Marilyn Wood, Manager
Business Development
Mikro-Tek Inc.
Phone: 705-268-3536
Fax: 705-268-7411
e-mail: mikrotek@onlink.net

Entity NAICS Code
1153 (Support Activities for Forestry)

 

2. Project Information

Title
Carbon Sequetration Through Mycorrhizal Inoculation of Forest Seedlings

Locations
Global forestry projects--buyer's decision (Canadian reforestation used as a model here)

Type
Reforestation (code: 812)

Start Date
2000

Projected Life of Project
45 years (model)

Greenhouse Gas Reduced
Carbon Dioxide - CO₂

Projected Total Tonnes of CO₂-equivalent Reduced
11,800

Offer Price Per Tonne
CAN$1.9

Project Association with Voluntary Programs
Yes - Voluntary Challenge & Registry

Written Project Description

Company and Technology Background:

Mikro-Tek Inc., established in Ontario in 1990, is a biotechnology company that produces and distributes microbial cultures of specific mycorrhizal fungi that enhance the survival and growth of plants and trees. These naturally occurring soil and root inhabiting fungi are isolated, cultured, and stored in our culture bank, which includes an extensive collection of microbes from a range of geographic locations and site conditions. From this collection we select the appropriate microbes that ensure the best field performance of the targeted plant species. They are selected for their ability to ensure rapid establishment and growth of vegetation; minimize reliance on chemical fertilizer; and reduce high maintenance costs associated with land reclamation, agriculture and forestry silviculture projects. The cultures are mass-produced in a controlled environment using fermentation or proprietary biomass production procedures.

An important aspect of a plant’s ability to survive and grow after planting is the symbiotic relationship it develops with these beneficial soil-inhabiting fungi, which colonize the plant's root tissue and form a structure referred to as mycorrhizae. Ninety percent of all plant species form mycorrhizal associations including fruit, vegetable and grain crops, floricultural crops, grasses, shrubs and trees. This symbiotic association increases the ability of a plant to capture nutrients and water by increasing the active area of the feeder roots, and makes the plant more resistant to certain root diseases and stressful conditions such as drought or heat. By ensuring the most beneficial mycorrhizal strains are made available, we also ensure that the host plants perform better over a range of site types while minimising the reliance on chemical additives such as fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides.

Under normal conditions, adequate mycorrhizal formation usually occurs naturally. However, commercial nursery soil mixes, and many industrial sites such as forestry cutovers and unproductive farmlands, are deficient in the specific species of mycorrhizal fungi required by the host plant. In these cases, specifically chosen indigenous species and strains of mycorrhizae are reintroduced to enhance the health and growth rates of the target plant community. The microbes are inoculated onto the roots of plants and seedlings in the nursery before field planting. This ensures establishment in the plant's root zone before its exposure to pathogens, various environmental stresses, poor soil or field conditions, or other competing, non-beneficial weed species of mycorrhizae. This technology is becoming common in a number of commercial industries globally, including plantation forestry in some areas.

History of project:

Mikro-Tek has conducted research over the past 10 years to identify and produce strains of naturally occurring mycorrhizal fungi that increase the survival and/or growth of tree seedlings in reforestation and afforestation applications. In 1997 Mikro-Tek undertook a $3.9 million project with partial funding from Industry Canada’s Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, and a number of forestry companies, to study the commercial benefits of mycorrhizal inoculation in the Canadian Boreal forests where mycorrhizal inoculation is not yet a common commercial forestry practice. In this project 9.8 million seedlings have been inoculated with selected strains of mycorrhizal fungi for eleven different tree species across Canada. Assessments in 1998 showed an average increase in survival and/or growth of 25%. In 1999, field assessments showed an average increase in volume per hectare for 80% of the two-year old plantations and for 88% of the three-year-old plantations (complete data available for baseline project verification). Numerous independent scientific studies indicate that these same increases in seedling growth can be realized worldwide on forestry species by matching indigenous strains of mycorrhizae to the corresponding host tree species. The increase in the rate of growth would be dependent on the tree species, geographic setting, fertility of the land etc.

Mikro-Tek’s main focus is the production, sale and application of mycorrhizal fungi, and the company initially targeted direct sales of mycorrhizal inoculum to forestry companies in Canada. However, because the forestry companies do not technically own the reforested plantations, they are hesitant to add to their forest establishment cost. While they readily acknowledge the potential silvicultural benefits conferred by mycorrhizal inoculation (increased survival and growth), the prime benefit—that of increased volume of timber harvested—will not be realized until the end of the rotational period when the forestry company may no longer hold the license for those trees. Consequently, Mikro-Tek recognizes that increased carbon sequestration as a more readily saleable commodity with a much broader target market.

Means for reducing greenhouse gases

Through photosynthesis, trees remove carbon dioxide from the air, produce oxygen, and store the carbon as wood. About one half of the dry weight of wood is carbon, and one tonne of carbon in wood, or forest biomass, represents 3.67 tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Scenarios show that annual rates of carbon sequestration increase over time and correspond closely to the age, health and growth cycle of the forest. Much work has already been done by research organizations to develop models of the carbon budget of various types of forests to estimate carbon storage and flux between the atmosphere, standing biomass, roots, litter and soil.

Any increase in seedling growth as a result of mycorrhizal inoculation carries a corresponding increase in carbon sequestration. Therefore, in follow-up to the Canadian forestry project, Mikro-Tek contracted Woodrising Consulting Inc. to model the increase in forest biomass as a result of mycorrhizal inoculation, based on Mikro-Tek’s 1999 three-year field data. Figure 1 shows the net biomass increase of a jack pine stand, over the 45-year rotation, due to mycorrhizal inoculation.

Ancillary environmental benefits and greenhouse gas emission reductions occur if improved growth results in reduced use of herbicides to control weed competition; increased survival of seedlings results in less replanting of failed plantations; increases in growth rates result in less land being used for timber production etc.

Greenhouse Gas Benefit Information:

In this project, Mikro-Tek proposes to inoculate seedlings that will be used to replant harvested forestry land. Every year approximately 700 million seedlings are planted on harvested land across Canada (e.g. approximately 230 million in British Columbia; 150 million in Ontario). The vast majority of these forests (over 90%) are located on crown land which is owned by the Canadian Government. The Provincial Governments enter into licensing agreements with forestry companies, which are assigned the rights to harvest the mature trees, and are then responsible for replanting the land under a government-approved Sustainable Forestry Plan.

Mycorrhizal inoculation of seedlings is not currently a common practice in Canada, and forestry companies are not legally required to inoculate. However, by incorporating mycorrhizal inoculation into existing forestry operations, the cost of seedling production, site preparation, planting and ongoing tending would already be covered by the forest company as part of their Sustainable Forest Management License. Therefore, by relying on the existing silviculture infrastructure and expertise, this project provides considerable cost savings in comparison to other reforestation and afforestation projects for carbon sequestration. Mycorrhizal inoculation would provide an average 25% increase in carbon sequestered over the life of the stand for about a 4 - 5% increase in forest establishment cost. Yearly costs associated with tending and fire protection, as well as long term land ownership would not be an issue.

Inoculation of blocks of seedlings can be undertaken at any time. Upon instigation of the project, a forestry company whose reforestation seedlings would be inoculated will be identified by Mikro-Tek. The specific mycorrhizal inoculum required for the species of seedlings selected would be produced at Mikro-Tek’s production facility, using proprietary fermentation procedures, over a period of approximately four months. Inoculation would take place in the seedling nurseries approximately 8-10 weeks after seeding. The forestry companies whose seedlings are inoculated will realize the standard silvicultural benefits of increased survival and growth of the seedlings. In return, these companies would plant the seedlings and provide detailed mapping of the forested stands where the seedlings are planted. These companies are required under their Sustainable Forestry License to collect field data relating to plantation establishment and growth, and would provide this information to Mikro-Tek for ongoing assessment and monitoring of the plots. Their license further obligates them to undertake forest management including silvicultural practices such as tending and protection of the forest from fire, insects, etc. Usually when a crop has reached "free-to-grow" status (i.e. outgrows the competitive weed species on the site), little or no tending or monitoring is required. When that crop is ready for harvesting at the end of its natural rotational period, verification of increase in growth as a result of mycorrhizal inoculation would be undertaken using historic growth data and models generated for the particular species of tree.

Mikro-Tek will supply the mycorrhizal inoculum and undertake the processes of verification and certification of resultant carbon emission credits using the results of current Canadian field trials and standard forestry growth and yield assessments over the life of the stands. In return, Mikro-Tek would retain ownership of the carbon offset credits generated by the project as a means to attract third party investments to cover the costs associated with inoculation and verification.

Financial Information:

• The price to inoculate a forestry seedling is approximately Cad$0.02 or about $35 per hectare, assuming a planting density of 1,700 trees/ha.

• Mikro-Tek would offer carbon offset credits generated from incremental blocks of one million inoculated seedlings (approximately 588 ha) at a cost of $22,500 per block.

• Each block would result in approximately 11,800 tonnes of CO2 equivalent being sequestered over a 45-year period for jack pine seedlings (other tree species would have different growth rates and would be modeled accordingly).

• Therefore, the cost per tonne of CO2 equivalent would be $1.90 (based on inoculation of jack pine seedlings, Woodrising Consulting Inc.) See attached graph, Figure 1.

Note: All costs are in real dollars using 2000 as the base year in which dollar terms are expressed. This scenario is modeled using jack pine. Growth rate increases are dependent upon tree species, geographic setting, fertility of the land, etc. For earlier credit delivery, faster growing species could be inoculated (e.g. eucalyptus in Chile has approximately a 10-12 year rotation period).

Assumptions:

• Any party that funds mycorrhizal inoculation of seedlings would own the resultant GHG emission reductions.

• Since the Government technically owns the land, and therefore the forests planted on it, they could either invest in the project, or provide confirmation of their relinquishing claim to the emission reduction credits created. Similarly, the forestry companies, in order to claim the emission reduction, would be required to invest in the inoculation of the seedlings.

• Mikro-Tek will supply project management, including mycorrhizal inoculum, project monitoring, verification and certification of resultant ERCs based on the procedures developed in their Canadian field trials. Volume of carbon sequestered, stored and emitted, including above and below ground, and living and dead biomass have been modeled (Figure 1) using these results, which will be combined with the standard forestry growth and yield curves for the particular species and site classes to quantify GHG emission reduction. All field growth data will be in place so that an independent third party can undertake verification.

Ancillary Benefits:

Additional economic, environmental and emission reduction benefits may include:

• Reduced replanting costs due to increased survival

• Avoidance of herbicidal spraying and/or manual tending due to increased growth rates

• Natural biological product which minimizes reliance on chemicals (e.g. fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides)

• More timber production (growth and yield) on the same amount of land

• Technology readily exportable to any geographic area where afforestation or reforestation is planned (indigenous species of mycorrhizal fungi would be used in each setting).

Forestry projects generally have long been acknowledged as having positive environmental, social and economic impacts relating to provision of community employment, preservation of ecosystems, ecological sustainability and biodiversity, watershed protection, economically viable land-use patterns and so on. Mycorrhizal inoculation specifically may also reduce the use of chemicals (e.g. fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides). It is in keeping with the global move toward best forest management practices reflected in both Federal and Provincial Canadian Forest Strategies, and in the Environmental Assessment Act—growing more timber on the same amount of land.

Figure 1: Increase in Forest Biomass due to Mycorrhizal Inoculation
(Jack Pine seedlings, 45-year rotation)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third Party Reviewer

None

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