For governments and jurisdictions
Measure Methane Uptake in National Forests
Tree bark removes methane from the atmosphere. National greenhouse-gas inventories do not currently include this sink. SelvaFlux works with governments and climate funders to measure it in national and subnational forests.
The finding
A Methane Sink Missing From National Accounts
Our 2024 Nature study showed that microbes living in tree bark remove methane from the atmosphere, a global sink on the order of 24.6 to 49.9 Tg of methane per year and strongest in tropical forests. At the warm-tropical reference rate, uptake is about 16.8 kg CH₄ per hectare per year. This equals about 0.45 tCO₂e per hectare per year under GWP100, before accounting deductions. GWP* depends on how the methane flux changed during the preceding 20 years, so it does not assign one fixed annual value to an established forest sink.
Standard forest-carbon accounts do not include this uptake. A national inventory that includes it would report more of the climate effect of standing forests.
What we do
National and Subnational Measurement Programs
SelvaFlux works with national and subnational governments to quantify this sink within their own forests. We design and run measurement campaigns alongside national forest institutions, deliver a country-specific assessment with quantified uncertainty, build local measurement capacity, and contribute the underlying methods to the open scientific record.
Climate funders can support programs led with a host government and its forest research institutions. Each program produces a measured national or subnational estimate of forest methane uptake and trains local teams to repeat the work.
How it works
How the Program Works
Convene
We bring together a host government, its national forest institutions, and a climate funder around a shared measurement program.
Quantify
Field campaigns on existing national forest-inventory plots produce country-specific methane uptake data with quantified uncertainty.
Strengthen
Governments gain local measurement capacity and a documented, repeatable method that strengthens their forest reporting and the case for protection.
Scope and limits
Bark methane uptake is a natural process the forest already carries out. It is reportable for completeness in a national greenhouse-gas inventory. It is not a carbon credit, an offset, or an NDC target credit, and it does not license continued emissions. The same science is moving into crediting methodologies for project developers (Gold Standard NMC 187, and a Verra module, M0423, on hold pending a Q1 2027 review), a separate track from the national-inventory use described here.
Get in touch
Discuss a Measurement Program
To discuss a national or subnational measurement partnership, get in touch. This describes a partnership model we are developing; it is forward-looking and does not represent existing government engagements.