Services

BRINKMAN FOREST RESTORATION partners with investors, landowners, and project developers who seek to meet economic, ecological and social benchmarks from afforestation, reforestation, the removal of large amounts of CO2 greenhouse gas, and from the sustainable management of existing forest lands. We identify, plan, establish and manage projects on either a co-development or contract basis, worldwide.

We seek medium to large scale projects.

Forest and Carbon Project Capabilities

Brinkman has a well developed forestry expertise, having been in the reforestation business in temperate climates since 1970 and in tropical climates since 1995. We have planted over 800 million trees and manage plantation and mature forest lands totalling over 1 million hectares. Private forest assets under management are approximately $70 million and public land tenure assets are significantly beyond that.

  • Advanced skills in forest carbon modelling for CDM and voluntary markets
  • Development and management of hardwood plantations for investor profit
  • Unique multi-species design links remnant ecosystems, extends habitat and restores biodiversity
  • Sustainable harvesting and timber sales
  • Biomass fuels
  • Operations in 6 countries

Afforestation / Reforestation (AR)

“Turn-key” AR projects. Brinkman is capable of developing “turn-key” AR projects up to very large scale and has a wide network of forest, ecosystem and carbon experts to fill out project development and implementation teams. Our unique skill is that our carbon and forest project design capabilities reflect not only technical forest and ecosystem project expertise but also 35 years of operational experience in the forest. Our exact role in projects may vary depending on the skills of the partners involved in a project. The following sections describe some of our particular capabilities related to AR projects.

Project conceptualization. Brinkman capabilities begin with project conceptualization, including the identification and integration of the multiple values of carbon optimization, species selection, plantation optimization, ecosystem restoration, natural forest protection, biodiversity, avoided deforestation, long term silviculture regimes, agroforestry, sustainable harvest planning, products, markets, local employment, local and national stakeholder interests, legal structuring, certification requirements, government regulations and financing planning. This forms the “proof of concept”.

Rights acquisition. Following the initial project design, we work with the project partners to secure key “rights” including land, timber, carbon and other rights needed to enable a long term AR project to succeed. To this end Brinkman brings significant experience at negotiating with governments at high levels.

Sourcing financing. Brinkman has a network of contacts with investment firms and funds interested in forest carbon investments that can be introduced to the project.

Validation and Comprehensive business plan. As it becomes clear that the project has the necessary ingredients, Brinkman can perform more detailed analysis to validate all components of the project concept and develop a comprehensive business plan, which would include a detailed expression of the financial and technical elements of the project, and documentation of all components in a package suitable for presentation to the financial markets or other stakeholders.

Project delivery. Following successful financing of the project Brinkman has the experience and capability to manage all aspects of the delivery of the project either in the short or long term. Brinkman’s 35 years of operational experience is reflected in the design our business plans – they are designed around what we know can be effectively delivered in the field. Exceptional outcomes also result from our use of adaptive management techniques that enable quick and effective responses to management and technical challenges that inevitably arise in implementing forestry projects.

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) or Avoided Deforestation (AD)

Brinkman has REDD projects under management in Honduras and under development in Canada, Panama and Belize.

REDD is a critical component in the struggle against climate change. Brinkman provides comprehensive services for the development of REDD strategies, forest and carbon modelling, negotiation, carbon sales, and sourcing financing.

In addition to the skills described in the AR section above, Brinkman offers:

  • Thorough understanding of carbon accounting mechanisms and rules, including the ‘leakage’ element critical to REDD methodologies.
  • Sophisticated modelling capability for modified forest management strategies, risk pooling, risk hedging
  • Proven track record of working with aboriginal and community stakeholders. Brinkman works closely with 4 aboriginal communities to sustainably manage their forest tenures covering roughly 1 million hectares of land.
  • Alternative livelihood planning for local populations through agroforestry and sustainable harvest that maintain REDD goals.

FSC Certification Group Manager

Brinkman’s operations in Central America (BARCA) are certified as FSC Certification Group Manager. BARCA manages high value hardwood plantations in Costa Rica (SW-FM/COC-000152), and Panama (SW-FM/COC-004497) and the resulting wood products can be sold as ‘FSC certified’.

Ecosystem Services Payments

Grasslands, Wetlands, Water, Forests

Brinkman seeks to embed ecological restoration, biodiversity retention or improvement, linking of fragmented ecosystems, water management, soil retention and other values into every forest project. Beyond carbon markets, innovative mechanisms can be used to capture ecosystem service values, thereby bringing additional funding or project partners (such as conservation agencies) for the benefit of the project. In addition we work with specialists in wetlands, soil and grassland carbon to develop comprehensive plans for carbon sequestration in the other emerging arenas of biological carbon storage.

Project scale – medium to large scale

We manage some projects in Costa Rica that are as small as a few hundred hectares of high value hardwoods, but projects of that size are usually financially viable only when combined with other larger projects that enable the management infrastructure to be efficient. Each new project’s character is different and circumstances vary widely depending on site conditions and targets. However, as a general guideline for AR activities, we seek to participate in projects that offer the scale of investment of US$10 million+ or that are scalable to 10,000 or more hectares of area.

If you have a project that would benefit from our services please contact us.