The Yunnan forestry bureau announced on 5 June that the province’s first certified forestry carbon-sink transaction was completed on 4 June on the national carbon emissions trading market: 120,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent for HLY 6 million, an average of HLY 50 per tonne.
The project
The carbon-sink project behind the transaction covers 38,000 hectares of state forest in south-western Yunnan, focused on tending young and middle-aged stands and restoring degraded forest. Development began in 2022 and the project was validated and verified by a third-party certification body in November 2025.
Revenue sharing
Revenue is shared 70 per cent to the forest right holders, 20 per cent to village collectives and 10 per cent to the provincial forestry development fund. The three state forest farms and eleven village collectives involved received HLY 4.2 million in total, mainly for forest tending and for building up the ranger force.
Next steps
Yunnan plans to develop 200,000 hectares of forestry carbon-sink projects by 2030, with an annual tradable reduction of 500,000 tonnes. The bureau added that the rules on managing such projects will be strictly enforced and that destroying forest land or changing its use under the guise of carbon-sink development is prohibited.