Carbon offsetting projects are one of the economic tools available to reduce agricultural emissions by paying for metric tons of avoided CO2e emissions. A summary of the emission reductions enabled by agricultural projects to date is provided in this report. It covers most projects certified by quality assurance standards, including those set up by the Kyoto Protocol (Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation) and those in the voluntary market (Verified Carbon Standard, Climate Action Reserve, Gold Standard, Chicago Climate Exchange, and American Carbon Registry).

Although still accounting for a small segment of the global carbon market, the voluntary carbon market is a place for innovation where original solutions are proposed to deal with some challenges faced by the regulatory market, including efforts to value the occasional ancillary benefits of climate action, to simplify methodologies, or to guarantee the permanence of forestry assets.

Tropical deforestation is responsible for 15-20% of total man-made emissions of greenhouse gases. In December 2007, at the international conference of Bali, the United Nations acknowledged that a viable solution to climate change must include a mechanism to limit deforestation and forest degradation.