Climate Action Reserve: Forest Protocols Overview

Updated 2026-11-02 · 3 min read · By the akar.earth specialist team

Climate Action Reserve forest protocols explained: US and Mexico forest rules, permanence, CCP status and what Indonesian developers can learn from them.

The Climate Action Reserve (CAR) is a North American carbon offset program whose forest protocols credit reforestation, improved forest management and avoided conversion, mainly in the United States and Mexico. Indonesian projects cannot normally use these protocols, but they are a useful benchmark for permanence and forest management rules that buyers apply worldwide.

What CAR is

CAR is a non-profit program that writes standardised protocols and operates a public registry. Its unit is the Climate Reserve Tonne (CRT), equal to one tonne of CO2e. CAR’s protocols are country-specific: they set baselines and rules for a defined geography rather than offering global methodologies.

Forest-related protocols include:

CAR also has non-forest protocols, including soil enrichment for agriculture, and a forward-crediting program called Climate Forward. Check CAR’s site for current protocol versions; several have been revised in recent years.

Who uses it

• US landowners, timber companies and land trusts running improved forest management and avoided conversion.
• Mexican communities and ejidos under the Mexico Forest Protocol.
• Buyers in North America seeking local credits and established registry records.
• Compliance links. CAR protocols informed the forest offset protocol used in California’s cap-and-trade program.

Key forest protocol requirements

The U.S. Forest Protocol is known for strict permanence terms. Its features include:

• Long monitoring and maintenance commitments. Historically the U.S. Forest Protocol required carbon to be maintained for 100 years after crediting, backed by a legal agreement.
• Buffer pool contributions based on a risk rating, to cover unintentional reversals.
• Compensation for intentional reversals by the project owner.
• Standardised baselines using regional common practice for improved forest management.
• Sustainable harvest and natural forest management requirements.

These rules show how a long, legally binding permanence commitment can work. Compare with Verra’s approach in our permanence and reversals page.

How it applies in Indonesia and Southeast Asia

CAR’s forest protocols do not cover Indonesia, so they are not a direct route for Indonesian projects. They matter in three indirect ways:

• Improved forest management benchmarks. Indonesian concession holders considering improved forest management under a PBPH can learn from CAR’s common-practice baselines and harvest rules.
• Permanence expectations. Buyers who know 100-year commitments may question shorter terms. Indonesian projects must also manage permit duration: a carbon commitment cannot exceed the legal right to the land without a clear plan. See PBPH licences.
• Community forest models. The Mexico Forest Protocol’s approach to community landholders is a useful comparison for social forestry and customary forests in Indonesia, which Permenhut 6/2026 names as legitimate participants in forestry carbon trading.

For Indonesian projects, the usable routes remain Verra VCS, Gold Standard, Plan Vivo and jurisdictional programs such as ART TREES, all subject to Perpres 110/2025 and SRUK registration for domestic trading.

Lessons Indonesian developers can borrow

Several CAR design features can strengthen an Indonesian project, even under another program:

• Legal commitments that match the crediting term. CAR ties permanence to a recorded agreement. Indonesian projects can align carbon commitments with permit duration and renewal plans.
• Standardised common-practice baselines. For improved forest management, comparing against regional harvesting practice is easier to defend than a bespoke scenario.
• Clear reversal rules. Separate handling of intentional and unintentional reversals makes contracts with buyers simpler.
• Public registry documents. Publishing monitoring data reduces due diligence friction with buyers and ratings agencies.

None of these features replace program rules; they make a project easier to defend.

Common pitfalls

• Searching for a CAR route in Asia. CAR protocols are geography-specific; check scope before investing time.
• Copying US permanence terms without legal basis. In Indonesia, permit tenure and state forest status define what you can commit to.
• Assuming CCP status transfers. Program eligibility does not make every CAR protocol CCP-Approved.

Relationship to ICVCM CCP status

ICVCM lists CAR as a CCP-Eligible program. Each protocol needs its own CCP-Approved decision. Improved forest management is among ICVCM’s CCP-approved categories; check the status table for which CAR protocol versions are included. See our CCP label page.

Next steps

Compare with the American Carbon Registry, read about improved forest management, or return to the standards hub. For a program choice on your own site, see our carbon strategy service.