Verra has resumed the review of registration and/or verification approval requests for some Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) projects whose contracted validation/verification bodies (VVBs) were subsequently suspended by Verra earlier this year.

In March, Verra announced suspension measures against four VVBs following their involvement in auditing the 37 rice cultivation projects in China that Verra rejected in 2024. The affected VVBs are China Classification Society Certification Company (CCSC), China Quality Certification Center (CQC), CTI Certification CO., LTD., and TÜV Nord Cert GmbH. The suspension measures were limited to specific scopes in select programs. (See the original press release for more details.) At that time, Verra also stated that it would not approve any existing registration and/or verification approval requests that include audits by the affected VVBs for the specific audit types from which they have been suspended.

Verra has now decided that affected projects can have their requests reviewed if they meet the following criteria:

  • The proponent submitted the registration and/or verification approval request, including all required documents, prior to the VVB suspension.
  • The proponent has paid all required fees in full.
  • The leader of the audit team for the project was not involved in auditing any of the rejected rice projects.
  • The VVB that audited the project documents for the registration and/or approval request and provided the validation and/or verification opinion met the following requirements:
    • The VVB was accredited by a recognized accreditation body for ISO 14065, or was UNFCCC-accredited to audit the relevant project types under the applicable sectoral scope (e.g., scopes 14 and 15 of the Clean Development Mechanism [CDM]); and
    • The VVB was approved by Verra to audit projects under sectoral scope 14: AFOLU in the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program.

After careful consideration of submissions received via its grievance redress policy (PDF), Verra decided that projects can have their requests reviewed if they meet the above criteria. Verra will contact projects that meet the criteria and are eligible to have their registration and/or verification approval requests reviewed.

The registration and/or verification approval requests will undergo Verra’s robust review process and be subject to rigorous quality control procedures before a final decision on these requests is reached. Verra’s reopening of a project review request does not guarantee approval of this request.