Celebrating the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Program’s 100th Validated Project

The Buffelsdraai Landfill Site Community Reforestation Project (external) in South Africa is just one of the over 100 Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Program projects working around the world to create benefits for people and planet. However, it occupies a special place in our program’s history. The Buffelsdraai project is notable for several reasons: it is working to convert cropland around the landfill to native forest without any loss of jobs; increase community cohesion; and reduce carbon emissions while providing ecosystem services. It also happens to be the official 100th project validated to the CCB Standards.

The CCB Program requires a two-step certification process. The first step, validation, confirms that the project has been designed according to CCB Program rules and requirements. This is the step that the Buffelsdraai project has completed.

The second step, verification, confirms that the project is achieving the benefits it set out to create. This step repeats periodically for the lifespan of the project.

You can think of validation as being hired based on your credentials, and verification as having your contract renewed periodically, based on performance. One of the projects that has been using the CCB Standards the longest, The Kasigau Corridor REDD Project Phase I (external), was validated back in 2009 and verified for the third time in 2015.

Because our standards program engages with projects for the long term, 100 projects since the first project was validated in 2007 is a big milestone. For projects, it represents countless hours of careful design, documentation, and review, not to mention the years spent implementing on the ground.

As the leading multiple benefit standard for land-use projects, we work with a diverse array of project types. Projects using the CCB Standards don’t only work to sequester carbon and protect or restore forest cover. They may also create a biodiversity corridor (external), protect an endemic wolf (external), or restore peatland watersheds (external).

100 projects validated is just one milestone for our growing program. Almost half of currently validated projects are also verified. We are currently on track to have the highest number of verifications since the first verifications in 2011. Stay tuned for that next milestone.