News Release: Denman Island Carbon Project Receives CCBA Validation

July 3, 2012, Vancouver, British Columbia: ERA Carbon Offsets Ltd. (TSX­-V: ESR) through its 100% owned subsidiary ERA Ecosystem Restoration Associates Inc. (“ERA”), is pleased to announce that the Denman Island Avoided Conversion of Forestlands Project has received final validation to the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance’s (“CCBA”) Project Design Standard on June 27^th, 2012. The project was officially posted on the CCBA website on June 29, 2012. ERA is the first private project developer to have two separate projects successfully validated to the CCBA standard in North America. In 2010, ERA’s CERP (Community Ecosystem Restoration Program) was the first Gold Level CCBA project recognized in Canada.

The Denman Island Avoided Conversion of Forestlands Project (the “Project”), which was first validated under ISO 14064-2 in 2011, is an innovative, award winning public-private partnership. By completing the Project, the Province of British Columbia and the private land owner, North Denman Lands Inc (“NDL”), and ERA have succeeded in protecting 750 hectares of land on Denman Island from future subdivision into residential and agricultural property. This involved a land donation by NDL, the purchase of carbon sequestration rights by ERA and a land transfer by the Province, which enabled the Province to acquire the land at a greatly reduced cost for inclusion in the BC Parks and protected areas system. 

The third party validation of the Denman CCBA project design document was completed by the international auditing firm Environmental Services Inc. (“ESI”). The Project is the third carbon project in Canada to be validated to the CCBA Standard and just one of ten such projects in North America.

The CCBA is a partnership of international NGOs that created the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards to enable identification of projects that adopt best practices to deliver robust and credible greenhouse gas reductions while also delivering net positive benefits to local communities and biodiversity. The CCBA members—Conservation International, CARE, Rainforest Alliance, The Nature Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Society—lead the development and implementation of pioneering forest carbon activities, demonstrating how effective partnerships and integrated design can deliver significant multiple benefits.

Duncan Manson, CEO of ERA commented: “We are very pleased to see the Denman Island Project recognized under CCBA which completes a tremendous undertaking by all parties involved including ERA, the communities of Denman Island, the previous land owners, BC Parks, and the Forest Carbon Group AG and their clients in Germany who financially supported the Project by purchasing carbon offsets created by the Project. This marks the first time in Canada that a forestry based carbon project has been developed and transferred to the government, where the lands will be recognized and protected as a provincial park. Beyond its carbon impact, it will provide multiple community and biodiversity benefits for decades to come.”

 

About ERA Carbon Offsets Ltd.

A pioneer in carbon offset projects based on forest conservation and restoration, ERA has delivered over two million tonnes of carbon offsets to the voluntary market from a variety of international forestry based projects. The company’s Community Ecosystem Restoration Program (“CERP”) began in 2005 in British Columbia, Canada, and has delivered large scale restoration of riparian ecosystems throughout the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. ERA’s successful project development activities include the award winning Darkwoods and Denman Island forest carbon projects, the first REDD concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa and Improved Forest Management projects in the United States which are expected to deliver ARB compliant tonnes for the California market beginning in 2013. Our activities span Canada, Africa, the United States and New Zealand. ERA’s carbon offset projects are validated and verified to ISO-14064, CCBA, PFSI-VER, CAR and VCS standards and sell into voluntary and pre-compliance carbon markets. ERA’s clients and product users include Air Canada, Catalyst Paper, Rolling Stone Magazine, HSE – Entega, Forest Carbon Group AG, and Shell Canada Limited. 

Additional information about ERA can be found on the corporate website www.eraecosystems.com

 

On behalf of the Board of Directors,
ERA CARBON OFFSETS LTD.

“Duncan J. Manson”
Chief Executive Officer

For further information, please contact:

David Rokoss
ERA Carbon Offsets Ltd.
110 – 788 Harbourside Drive
North Vancouver, BC V7P 3R7
Telephone: 604-973-6512
Email: david.rok...@eraecosystems.com

 

Additional information on ERA can be found on the corporate website www.eracarbonoffsets.com or by contacting inves...@eracarbonoffsets.com

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS: This document includes forward-looking statements as well as historical information. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the continued advancement of the company’s general business development, research development and the company’s development of forest-based carbon offsets. When used in this document, the words “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intent”, “may”, “project”, “plan”, “should” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements. Although ERA Carbon Offsets Ltd. believes that their expectations reflected in these forward looking statements are reasonable, such statements involve risks and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements include fluctuations in the marketplace for the sale of carbon credits, the inability to implement corporate strategies, the ability to obtain financing and other risks disclosed in our filings made with Canadian Securities Regulators.

 

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