Developing forest carbon projects is complex and often daunting for project proponents, whether they are from the private sector, civil society organizations or government agencies. Successful project development requires complying with rigorous requirements for analyzing and documenting carbon benefits as well as an array of legal, business, community relations issues – in addition to the challenging work of carrying out reforestation, forest and land management activities that go beyond business as usual – in order to create carbon benefits. This document aims to provide streamlined guidance to project proponents and developers to help navigate these challenges. It focuses on outlining key steps and components of developing a forest carbon project that can produce marketable emissions reductions under what are currently the most widely utilized carbon standards: the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS), the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and, as co-certification, the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards (CCBS).