Trillion Trees and Natural Carbon Storage Act
A BILL
To establish forestry policies that facilitate reforestation, conservation, international cooperation, and other ecologically sound management practices that reduce atmospheric carbon, to support United States efforts in partnership with the One Trillion Trees Initiative, to encourage the sustainable management, restoration, and conservation of global forests, grasslands, wetlands, and coastal habitats, and for other purposes.
2. Sense of Congress
It is the sense of Congress that—
forests and other ecosystems, including grasslands and coastal wetlands, sequester and store atmospheric carbon on climatologically relevant timescales;
conserving, protecting, and restoring forest, grassland, and wetland ecosystems globally would sequester a substantial amount of atmospheric carbon and constitute a pragmatic step towards addressing global carbon emissions and the degradation of biodiversity;
blue carbon habitat can also store a substantial amount of atmospheric carbon and provide numerous other environmental, cultural, and economic benefits;
as methods to address the changing climate, restore ecosystems, and benefit human health, the United States Government should take a leadership role, both domestically and abroad, in—
ending deforestation;
supporting tree planting, natural regeneration, forest landscape restoration, wildfire risk reduction, and sustainable forest management; and
conserving and restoring grasslands, wetlands, blue carbon habitats, and other lands and waters at scale; and
the 1t.org trillion trees platform established by the World Economic Forum, the Global Environment Facility, and other domestic and international efforts to conserve and expand healthy forest and tree cover, grasslands, wetlands, and blue carbon habitats globally should be supported.
3. Definitions
In this Act:
Administrator— The term Administrator means the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development.
Blue carbon habitat— The term blue carbon habitat means a coastal habitat in the soils and vegetation of which carbon is stored, including a tidal wetland, a mangrove forest, a seagrass bed, a kelp forest, and other saltwater and estuarine coastal systems.
Carbon sequestration— The term carbon sequestration means the processes of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide for a climatologically relevant period of time.
Forest landscape restoration— The term forest landscape restoration means a process that aims to regain ecological functionality and enhance human well-being in deforested or degraded landscapes.
National Forest System— The term National Forest System has the meaning given the term in section 11(a) of the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (16 U.S.C. 1609(a)).
Naturally regenerate— The term naturally regenerate means the regeneration of natural tree growth from—
available seed sources native to the specific forest area; or
any other natural process that does not primarily involve planting.
Net carbon stock— The term net carbon stock means the absolute quantity of carbon held within a discrete portion of the biosphere (including carbon held within a discrete portion of aboveground forest biomass and forest soil) at a specified time.
Secretary— The term Secretary means the Secretary of Agriculture.
Sustainable— The term sustainable means the manner in which a land-use activity will, over the long-term—
satisfy the human and ecological needs associated with the use of land;
conserve critical habitat and conserve and enhance the environmental quality of the land; and
optimize current and future land uses to ensure any enhancements in productivity are at a rate and in a manner that does not threaten decline.