By Mongabay.com

A conservation project in Colombia has broken new ground in the world of forest carbon credits. The project, run as partnership between an Afro-indigenous community and a Colombian company, is the first REDD+ project certified under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) in Colombia. More importantly, it is also the first certified REDD+ project on community-owned, collectively-titled land.

The project, which earlier this year was awarded Gold Level validation under the Climate, Community, and Biodiversity (CCB) standard, completed validation and verification under VCS last week. Brodie Ferguson, Founder and Managing Director of Anthrotect, the company that initiated the project, said the achievement shows that a properly-conceived REDD+ project can benefit both forests and forest-dependent people.