A global database of nature-based carbon offset project boundaries

Overview Nature-based climate solutions (NBS) have become an important component of strategies aiming to reduce atmospheric CO2 and mitigate climate change impacts. Carbon offsets have emerged as one of the most widely implemented NBS strategies, however, these projects have also been criticized for exaggerating offsets. Verifying the efficacy of NBS-derived carbon offset is complicated by a lack of readily available geospatial boundary data. Herein, we detail methods and present a database of nature-based offset project boundaries. This database provides the locations of 575 NBS projects distributed across 55 countries. Geospatial boundaries were aggregated using a combination of scraping data from carbon project registries (n=433, 75.3%) as well as manual georeferencing and digitization (n=127, 22.1%). Database entries include three varieties of carbon projects: avoided deforestation, afforestation, reforestation and re-vegetation, and improved forest management. An accuracy assessment of the georeferencing and digitizing process indicated a high degree of accuracy (intersection over union score of 0.98 +/- 0.015). Details about using the database are provided in the README.txt file.概述 基于自然的气候解决方案（Nature-based Climate Solutions, NBS）已成为旨在降低大气二氧化碳浓度、减缓气候变化影响的战略的重要组成部分。碳抵消已成为应用最广泛的基于自然的气候解决方案策略之一，但此类项目也因夸大抵消效果而饱受诟病。由于缺乏便捷可用的地理空间边界数据，验证基于自然的气候解决方案衍生碳抵消项目的成效变得极为复杂。本研究详述了相关方法，并公开了一份基于自然的抵消项目边界数据库。该数据库收录了分布于55个国家的575个基于自然的气候解决方案项目的位置信息。本次研究通过结合爬取碳项目注册平台数据（共433项，占比75.3%）以及手动地理配准与数字化（共127项，占比22.1%）的方式，整合得到了这些地理空间边界。数据库收录的碳项目分为三类：避免毁林、造林、再造林与植被恢复，以及森林可持续经营。对地理配准与数字化流程的精度评估结果显示，其精度极高（交并比（Intersection over Union, IoU）得分为0.98 ± 0.015）。 该数据库的使用详情请参见README.txt文件。