Facilitating the participation of farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners in voluntary environmental credit markets.

Facilitating the provision of technical assistance, through covered entities, to farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners to help overcome barriers to entry into voluntary environmental credit markets.

Ensuring that participating farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners receive fair distribution of revenues derived from the sale of an agriculture or forestry credit.

Increasing access for farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners to resources relating to existing voluntary environmental credit markets, including information relating to the basic market structure and the various roles and qualifications of different parties.

calculations;

sampling methodologies;

voluntary environmental credit accounting principles;

systems for verification, monitoring, measurement, and reporting; and

methods to account for additionality, permanence, leakage, and, where appropriate, avoidance of double counting; and

feeds, feed additives, and the use of byproducts as feed sources; or

manure management practices;

the region in which the covered entity provides its services;

whether the covered entity is a technical assistance provider or a verifier; and

the protocols in which the covered entity has proficiency; and

has been identified by the Advisory Council in its initial assessment under subsection (g)(1) to ensure certainty for producers in the marketplace for agriculture or forestry credits; and

the Secretary determines is appropriate for inclusion.

through working with covered entities registered under the Program; and

by providing information relating to programs, registries, and protocols of programs and registries that provide market-based participation opportunities for working and conservation agricultural and forestry lands.

the information provided by the entity under paragraph (1)(B); or

best management practices for agricultural and forestry activities that prevent, reduce, or mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (including through the sequestration of carbon).

based on a periodic review of a representative sample of covered entities, which shall occur not less frequently than once each year; or

as necessary.

the information provided by the entity under paragraph (1)(B); and

best management practices for agricultural and forestry activities that prevent, reduce, or mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (including through the sequestration of carbon).

request from that covered entity contact information for all farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners to which the covered entity provided technical assistance or the verification of the processes described in protocols of voluntary environmental credit markets; and

notify those farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners of the removal.

be broadly representative of the agriculture and private forest sectors;

include beginning, socially disadvantaged, limited resource, and veteran farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners; and

be composed of not less than 51 percent farmers, ranchers, or private forest landowners.

not more than 2 representatives of the Department of Agriculture, as determined by the Secretary;

not more than 1 representative of the Environmental Protection Agency, as determined by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency;

not more than 1 representative of the National Institute of Standards and Technology;

not fewer than 12 representatives of the agriculture industry, appointed in a manner that is broadly representative of the agriculture sector, including not fewer than 6 active farmers and ranchers;

not fewer than 4 representatives of private forest landowners or the forestry and forest products industry appointed in a manner that is broadly representative of the private forest sector;

not more than 4 representatives of the relevant scientific research community, including not fewer than 2 representatives from land-grant colleges and universities (as defined in section 3103 of this title), of which 1 shall be a representative of a college or university eligible to receive funds under the Act of August 30, 1890 (commonly known as the “Second Morrill Act”) (26 Stat. 417, chapter 841; 7 U.S.C. 321 et seq.), including Tuskegee University;

not more than 2 experts or professionals familiar with voluntary environmental credit markets and the verification requirements in those markets;

not more than 3 members of nongovernmental or civil society organizations with relevant expertise, of which not fewer than 1 shall represent the interests of socially disadvantaged groups;

not more than 3 members of private sector entities or organizations that participate in voluntary environmental credit markets; and

any other individual whom the Secretary determines to be necessary to ensure that the Advisory Council is composed of a diverse group of representatives of industry, academia, independent researchers, and public and private entities.

not fewer than 8 members shall serve for a term of 1 year;

not fewer than 12 members shall serve for a term of 2 years; and

not fewer than 12 members shall serve for a term of 3 years.

the list of protocols and description of qualifications published by the Secretary under subsection (c)(1); and

the activities described in subsection (c)(1)(B);

the current methods used by voluntary environmental credit markets to quantify and verify the prevention, reduction, or mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions (including the sequestration of carbon);

means to reduce barriers to entry in the business of providing technical assistance or the verification of the processes described in protocols of voluntary environmental credit markets for covered entities, including by improving technical assistance provided by the Secretary;

means to reduce compliance and verification costs for farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners in entering voluntary environmental credit markets, including through mechanisms and processes to aggregate the value of activities across land ownership;

issues relating to land and asset ownership in light of evolving voluntary environmental credit markets; and

additional means to reduce barriers to entry in voluntary environmental credit markets for farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners, particularly for beginning, socially disadvantaged, limited resource, and veteran farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners.

the member or a family member, as determined by the Secretary;

stock owned by the member or a family member, as determined by the Secretary; or

the employer of, or a business owned in whole or in part by, the member or a family member, as determined by the Secretary; or

constitute a conflict of interest under section 208 of title 18; or

may call into question the integrity of the Advisory Council, the Program, or the technical assistance or verification activities described under subsection (c)(2).

the number and categories of non-Federal actors in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors involved in development, generation, or sale of agriculture or forestry credits in voluntary environmental credit markets;

the estimated overall domestic market demand for agriculture or forestry credits at the end of the preceding 4-calendar year period, and historically, in voluntary environmental credit markets;

the total number of agriculture or forestry credits (measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent) that were estimated to be in development, generated, or sold in market transactions during the preceding 4-calendar year period, and historically, in voluntary environmental credit markets;

the estimated supply and demand of metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent of offsets in the global marketplace for the next 4 years;

the barriers to entry due to compliance and verification costs described in subsection (f)(4)(C)(iii);

the state of monitoring and measurement technologies needed to quantify long-term carbon sequestration in soils and from other activities to prevent, reduce, or mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in the agriculture and forestry sectors;

means to reduce barriers to entry into voluntary environmental credit markets for beginning, socially disadvantaged, limited resource, and veteran farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners, and the extent to which existing protocols of voluntary environmental credit markets allow for aggregation of projects among farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners;

the extent to which the existing regimes for generating and selling agriculture or forestry credits (as the regimes exist at the end of the preceding 4-calendar year period, and historically), and existing voluntary environmental credit markets, may be impeded or constricted, or achieve greater scale and reach, if the Department of Agriculture were involved, including involvement in education described in clause (ix);

the extent to which Department of Agriculture education of stakeholders about voluntary environmental credit markets would benefit those stakeholders, including whether that education would reduce barriers to entry identified under clause (v);

the extent to which existing protocols of voluntary environmental credit markets, including verification, additionality, permanence, and reporting, adequately take into consideration and account for factors encountered by the agriculture and private forest sectors in preventing, reducing, or mitigating greenhouse gas emissions (including by sequestering carbon) through agriculture and forestry practices, considering variances across regions, topography, soil types, crop or species varieties, and business models;

the extent to which existing protocols of voluntary environmental credit markets consider options to ensure the continued valuation, through discounting or other means, of agriculture and forestry credits in the case of the practices underlying those credits being disrupted due to unavoidable events, including production challenges and natural disasters; and

opportunities for other voluntary markets outside of voluntary environmental credit markets to foster the trading, buying, or selling of credits that are derived from activities that provide other ecosystem service benefits, including activities that improve water quality, water quantity, wildlife habitat enhancement, and other ecosystem services, as the Secretary determines appropriate;

personally identifiable information, including in a contract or service agreement, of a farmer, rancher, or private forest landowner, obtained by the Secretary under subsection (d)(4)(C)(i); and

confidential business information in a contract or service agreement of a farmer, rancher, or private forest landowner obtained by the Secretary under subsection (d)(4)(C)(i).