Beyond Carbon: Identifying the Family Forest Carbon Program’s Value

At first glance, the American Forest Foundation’s Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) is a carbon program: family forest owners are paid to adopt practices such as longer harvest rotations, avoided conversion, and improved stewardship. But the same changes that increase carbon storage may also protect drinking water, improve air quality, support biodiversity, and strengthen landowner economics.

Beyond Carbon, a new report from the Sorenson Impact Institute and the American Forest Foundation, explores whether those co-benefits can be identified and ultimately valued in ways that expand the program’s impact and financing potential. Sorenson Impact Institute’s analysis identifies four promising pathways: water, public health, biodiversity, and landowner value. The findings raise a larger question: if healthier forests create value for utilities, municipalities, healthcare systems, conservation organizations, and landowners, could more of those beneficiaries have a role in sustaining them?

Looking Beyond Carbon

Carbon markets have helped create a financial case for forest conservation. But carbon captures only one piece of what healthy forests provide. The report explores how those additional benefits could create opportunities for water utilities, healthcare systems, municipalities, insurers, conservation organizations, and other potential funding partners.

Collaborating with the American Forest Foundation

The Sorenson Impact Institute partnered with the American Forest Foundation (AFF) to examine the broader environmental, social, and economic value generated through its Family Forest Carbon Program. AFF works with family forest owners to support sustainable forest management. Through FFCP, participating landowners receive annual carbon payments while adopting practices designed to increase carbon storage and improve forest health.

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Our Partners

American Forest Foundation

Our Challenge

Forests create benefits that markets do not always capture. For FFCP landowners, carbon payments provide a direct source of income. Yet the management changes behind those payments can also protect water supplies, remove harmful air pollutants, improve habitat, and strengthen the long-term condition and value of forestland. Together, these benefits extend the value of each project far beyond the value of the carbon payment itself. Water utilities may benefit from cleaner source water. Communities may benefit from better air quality. Landowners may gain access to cost-share programs, tax incentives, and longer-term asset appreciation. The challenge is turning those benefits into measurable value and connecting that value to the institutions that benefit from it.

Our Work

The Sorenson Impact Institute evaluated four pathways through which FFCP may generate value beyond carbon: landowner economics, water, public health, and biodiversity. Water emerged as one of the most immediately actionable opportunities. Protecting forest cover can support source-water quality and reduce pressure on downstream infrastructure, creating potential pathways for utility investment, avoided-cost valuation, water-quality markets, and outcomes-based funding. For landowners, annual carbon payments may be only one part of the financial picture. Improved management can also support access to conservation cost-share programs and forestland tax incentives, while delayed harvesting may increase standing timber volume and long-term asset value. The report also examines how improvements in air quality can be translated into potential health and economic benefits using established tools such as i-Tree and EPA’s BenMAP. Biodiversity is a less mature but potentially significant frontier. FFCP’s scale, landowner network, and management approach could position AFF to help shape emerging models for biodiversity finance. The findings are directional, not guaranteed valuations. But they point to a larger possibility: FFCP may be more than a carbon program. It may be a platform for capturing more of the value healthy forests already create.

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Looking Beyond Carbon

Collaborating with the American Forest Foundation

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