Farm-scale analysis of the potential uptake of carbon offset activities

Carbon mitigation through land-use change and forestry has received considerable attention as a low-cost method of addressing climate change. However, spatial and productive heterogeneity is often lost in broader scale analyses frequently used to inform climate mitigation policy. Most research to date does not integrate these analyses with transaction costs; often a significant barrier to implementation. This paper demonstrates a technique for assessing project feasibility while considering both transaction costs and spatial heterogeneity. Ignoring farm heterogeneity was found to significantly overestimate both the market price of carbon and quantity of carbon sequestration required before projects become feasible.