Forestry Commission
The Woodland Carbon Guarantee (WCaG) is 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.
The date for the next Woodland Carbon Guarantee auction will be confirmed as soon as possible.
The Woodland Carbon Guarantee provides you with the option to sell your captured carbon in the form of verified carbon credits, called Woodland Carbon Units (WCUs), to the government for a guaranteed price every 5 or 10 years up to 2055/56. This provides an additional long-term income from your woodland. If you prefer, you can still choose to sell the credits on the open market rather than to the government. WCUs are generated through verification checks carried out under the Woodland Carbon Code, which assess how the woodland has grown and therefore how much carbon dioxide has been captured.
What is on offer?
Unlike most existing woodland creation support mechanisms the WCaG is not a grant or a fund and it does not contribute towards the cost of planning, establishment or early maintenance.
Woodland creation projects accepted into the Woodland Carbon Guarantee have the option to sell WCUs to the government every 5 or 10 years up to 2055/56. The government will buy the WCUs for an agreed guaranteed price that is index-linked for the life of the contract. You can still choose to sell the carbon credits on the open market at any time.
Find out more about the funding on offer in our and in the more in-depth guide to .
Find out if you are eligible
The WCaG is open to land managers who are owner occupiers, tenants, landlords and licensors, as long as they 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
In order to apply for the Woodland Carbon Guarantee, woodland creation projects will need to be registered with and managed under the Woodland Carbon Code.
For further information see the guide to
How to apply
The Woodland Carbon Guarantee is open for applications. The date for the next auction will be confirmed as soon as possible.
In order to apply you must first register your project with the Woodland Carbon Code. Read the guide to to understand the eligibility requirements.
If you have registered for the Woodland Carbon Code and meet the other eligibility requirements, please complete the Woodland Carbon Guarantee application form and return it to:
wcag@forestrycommission.gov.uk
Woodland Carbon Guarantee
Forestry Commission
620 Bristol Business Park
Coldharbour Lane
Bristol BS16 1EJ
You can get further advice on WCaG or help completing the application form from the Forestry Commission by emailing wcag@forestrycommission.gov.uk.
How it works
There are 5 stages to the Woodland Carbon Guarantee process. Please see for further information.
1 - Pre-application
Before applying for the Woodland Carbon Guarantee your project will need to be registered with the Woodland Carbon Code. The Woodland Carbon Code provides tools for calculating how much carbon will be sequestered by your woodland. You can download the Carbon Calculation Spreadsheet and Guidance from the Woodland Carbon Code website.
2 - Application
Once you have calculated how much carbon your woodland will produce and registered it with the Woodland Carbon Code, you can submit a Woodland Carbon Guarantee application form.
3 - Auction
The seventh auction was held in May 2023, for reference, details about how the seventh auction operated including a list of eligible tree species can be found in the . This guide will be updated and revised once the date for auction eight is confirmed. If the project is successful at auction, then a conditional 3035-year contract is offered. An example of the sample participant contract (PDF,400 KB, 13 pages)is available for you to view.
The average successful bid price for WCUs to date is shown in the table below. 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 | 7
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