Verra, the world’s leading standard setter for climate action and sustainable development, will release a new consolidated REDD methodology in Q3 of 2023. The updated methodology ensures that forest conservation credits issued with the certification of Verra’s flagship Verified Carbon Standard maintain the highest level of integrity. The new REDD methodology is an evolution of existing procedures for robust and transparent quantification of greenhouse gas emission reductions from high-quality forest conservation activities. Important innovations of this new REDD methodology strengthen projects’ vital role in mitigating climate change and reducing the loss of critical forests and biodiversity. They include:
- Allocated activity data using a single deforestation dataset for the entire jurisdiction ensures that projects don’t have to rely on reference regions to project future deforestation. Baseline data is allocated based on project areas’ vulnerability.
- Crowdsourced data for deforestation risk vetted and provided by Verra ensures that projects use best-quality inputs to determine the expected danger of deforestation across the jurisdiction.
Projects using existing VCS Avoiding Unplanned Deforestation and Degradation (AUDD) project methodologies will transition to this new REDD methodology as soon as data for their respective jurisdictions are available.
Verra will publish the draft methodology — which was open for public consultation in spring 2022 — when it is undergoing assessment by a validation/verification body so that stakeholders can familiarize themselves with it.
If you have any questions about the consolidated REDD methodology or the AUDD project transition process, please see the frequently asked questions or contact Salvador Sánchez Colón, Manager, REDD+ Technical Innovation, (scolon@verra.org). If your question is related to a project listed on the Verra Registry, please provide that project’s identification number in your email.