Christine Cadigan

Given the urgency of the climate crisis, we must bring the latest science together with the most innovative business models to continually improve carbon markets. We now know that, if leveraged more fully, natural climate solutions implemented in the United States could contribute more than a third of the global carbon mitigation needed to achieve a 1.5 or even 2-degree pathway. We also know that forests, specifically American family-owned forests, which represent 39% of all forests in the United States, are key to this success. The Family Forest Carbon Program, developed jointly by the American Forest Foundation and The Nature Conservancy, enables American family forest owners to access climate finance from carbon markets to improve forest health and address climate change. But not all carbon programs are created equal. Join us and learn about our first-of-its-kind methodology which increases transparency and accuracy in carbon accounting — ensuring a real, meaningful climate impact — and also how we plan to catalyze climate-smart forestry on 50 millions acres of family-owned forestland by 2030, generating roughly 50 million tons of carbon CO2 equivalents annually. It’s a win-win for people and the planet.

Speaker Biography

Christine Cadigan is currently the Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP) Senior Director at the American Forest Foundation.  Established as a partnership with The Nature Conservancy, Christine has led FFCP since its inception, setting the strategy from ideation to design to implementation. Under her leadership, the program validated an innovative methodology through Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard, launched a small landowner offering in the Central Appalachian region, signed almost $50 million in Emissions Reductions Purchase Agreements with major corporations, and issued its first $10 million third-party designated Green Bond, addressing Sustainable Development Goals 9, 12, 13, 15 and 17. Christine has been at the American Forest Foundation for nearly 12 years and graduated from Duke University with dual Masters degrees in Environmental Management and Forestry.