Woodland Carbon Guarantee (currently closed)

The Woodland Carbon Guarantee (WCaG) wasis a £50 million scheme that aims to help accelerate woodland planting rates and develop the domestic market for woodland carbon for the permanent removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It is an objective in the 25 Year Environment Plan and was announced in the autumn 2018 budget.Budget.

What is on offer?

The WCaG gavegives you the option to sell captured carbon from your woodland in the form of verified carbon credits, called Woodland Carbon Units (WCUs). You can sell WCUs to the government for a guaranteed price every 5 or 10 years up to 2055-56.2055 - 2056.

The government will buy the WCUs for an agreed guaranteed price that is index-linked for the life of the contract. This provides an additional long-term income from your woodland.

You can choose to sell the credits on the open market instead.

WCUs are generated through verification checks carried out under the Woodland Carbon Code (WCC), which assesses how the woodland has grown and how much carbon dioxide has been captured.

The WCaG is not a grant or a fund and it diddoes not contribute towards the cost of woodland creation planning, establishment or early maintenance.

Find out more in our Woodland Carbon Guarantee leaflet (PDF, 558 KB, 4 pages) and in the detailedmore guide:

in-depth guide to

Getting started with the Woodland Carbon Guarantee

(PDF, 683 KB, 12 pages).

Projects without grant support 

A new category ‘projects without grant support’ wasis available for the eighth auction for project developers who chosechoose not to receive any grant funding from government to plant and maintain their new woodland.

These projects hadwill accesshave to a higher, but undisclosed, reserve price at auction compared to projects that will receive grant support. The higher reserve price reflectedreflects that the upfront costs of planting are borne by the project developer and are not recovered through grants such as the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO).Offer.

Projects couldcan still receive Woodland Creation Planning Grant to support the design process and remain eligible for this new category.   

Alongside the category for projects without grant support, the eighth auction alsowill acceptedcontinue to accept applications for projects that intendedintend to use government grant schemes. This neededneeds to be declared on the application form, these projects werewill be subject to the lower reserve price of £30 per WCU.

Find out if you are eligible

The WCaG wasis open to land managers who are owner occupiers, tenants, landlords and licensors. You neededneed to have control of the land and all the activities needed to meet the obligations of the WCaG for the full duration of the contract.

The WCaG application cannot include land:

• which is covered by a statutory requirement to establish or restock woodland
• which is not entirely within England
• where the applicant does not have management control for the length of the agreement and is unable to have an application countersigned by the landowner
• which is owned by public bodies

ToIn order to apply for the WCaG, woodland creation projects neededwill need to be registered with and managed under the WCC.

For further information see the guide to Getting started with the Woodland Carbon Guarantee (PDF, 683 KB, 12 pages).

How to apply

ProjectsTo needapply toyou bemust registeredfirst register your project with the WCC.

Read Getting started with the Woodland Carbon Guarantee (PDF, 683 KB, 12 pages) to understand the eligibility requirements.

If you have registered and meet the other eligibility requirements, complete the WCaG application form and return it to:

wcag@forestrycommission.gov.uk

For further advice on the WCaG, or emailhelp uscompleting at the application form, email: wcag@forestrycommission.gov.uk.

How it works

There are 5 stages to the Woodland Carbon Guarantee process.

You can read Getting started with the Woodland Carbon Guarantee (PDF, 683 KB, 12 pages) for further information.

1. Pre-application

Before applying for the WCaG your project needswill need to be registered with the WCC. The WCC provides tools for calculating how much carbon will be sequestered by your woodland. You can download the Carbon Calculation spreadsheetSpreadsheet and guidanceGuidance from the WCC website.

2. Application

The Woodland Carbon Guarantee is currently closed for applications.

Once you have calculated how much carbon your woodland will produce and registered it with the WCC, you couldcan submit a Woodland Carbon Guarantee application form.

3. Auction

The eighth auction waswill heldtake place in September 2024. Further details about the eighth auction, including a list of eligible tree species, can be found in the Guide to the eighth auction (PDF, 427 KB, 9 pages).

If the project is successful at auction, then a conditional 30 to 35 year contract is offered. You can view a sample participant contract (PDF, 216 KB, 13 pages).

The average successful bid price for WCUs to date is shown in the following table. However, the auction is a competitive process and the data in this table should not be taken as a firm indicator of acceptable bids.

Auction	Total number of bids	Total number of successful bids	Average successful bid weighted by WCUs
1	31	18	£24.11
2	77	27	£19.71
3	46	31	£17.31
4	23	19	£18.62
5	16	15	£23.70
6	9	9	£22.61
7	2	2	£19.76
8	3	3	£25

4. Validation

All WCaG contract offers are conditional on securing validation under the WCC.

If you have applied for grant funding to plant your woodland, including funding from the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO,) you must have a EWCO agreement in place before you begin any on site work such as fencing. Where grant funding has not been applied for you must secure regulatory consent, including an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before commencing work.

When you are awaiting the outcome of a WCaG auction, you should only start preparatory work where:

1. grant funding and/or any necessary regulatory consents have been secured; and
2. your project has been successfully registered with the WCC.

At the point when your woodland is validated under the WCC, it is possible to adjust the number of WCUs that can be sold to government under the WCaG, if this is based on a change in the woodland design plan (for example becauseas a result of the EIA). Any request for a change in the maximum number of WCUs must be made in writing and agreed to in writing by the Forestry Commission. The maximum permitted increase in WCUs is 10% above the quantity requested on the application form and entered the auction; there is no maximum permitted decrease.

Once the project has been validated by the WCC, we will issue the final WCaG contract.

5. Verification

As your woodland grows, it will be verified every 5 or 10 years through the WCC to confirm the amount of carbon that has been sequestered and therefore the number of WCUs delivered. You then have the option to sell the verified credits to the government for the guaranteed price or to sell them privately on the open market.

WCaG contracts will only cover carbon sequestered for the first 30 to 35 years of the woodland’s life. The actual contract length will be determined by the starting year with all contracts ending in 2055-56. WCUs produced after 2055-56 can be sold privately but will not be purchased by the government under the WCaG.

You cannot sell more WCUs to the government at each verification point than the number set out in the contract, except where specifically agreed upon in writing by the government. If the number of verified units drops below 80% of the level set out in the contract, then the government reserves the right to cancel the contract for any future units.

Read Getting started with the Woodland Carbon Guarantee (PDF, 683 KB, 12 pages) for further information.

Terms and conditions

For a full copy of the terms and conditions, see the sample participant contract (PDF, 216 KB, 13 pages).

Contact the Forestry Commission

ToGet get further advice on the WCaG, emailor ushelp atcompleting the application form, email us: wcag@forestrycommission.gov.uk.