The System of Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) views CO2 sequestration as an ecosystem service, the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) allocates CO2 removals to forestry sectors. In effect, UNFCCC accounting provides the foundation for sequestered carbon to be owned and traded. Such ownership is not explicit in the SEEA. Moreover, interpretations of human inducement that are used to justify the classification of sequestered carbon as ‘anthropogenic’ differ substantially between the UNFCCC and the SEEA. Accounting dissonances and uncertain ownership rules can affect industry perspectives on their operations. Global markets for carbon from forests are still small, but with increasing pressure for abatement measures and increasing demand for forest space, problems surrounding the accounting for human-induced change, customary ownership of forests, and the allocation of property rights are likely to hamper the transition of carbon from collectively owned ecosystem input to individually owned commodity.
