Active 18 December 2023
Outcome Label
Eligibility
Pending Methodology Update
14. Agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFOLU)
This methodology estimates greenhouse gas emissions from areas where unplanned deforestation occurs and quantifies the emission reductions achieved by curbing deforestation. The methodology provides a comprehensive set of tools for analyzing both frontier and mosaic deforestation patterns to establish the baseline deforestation rate, monitor emission reductions, and assess leakage.
- New projects and projects that did not initiate the public comment period (i.e., that did not request pipeline listing under validation) before December 19, 2023, have until March 19, 2024, to do so using the previous methodology versions.
- Project proponents that have initiated or will initiate a public comment period before March 19, 2024, have until March 19, 2025, to complete validation with previous versions of the methodologies. If they complete validation by then, projects may continue to use these methodologies until they have to transition to the new REDD methodology or until their next baseline reassessment or crediting period renewal, whichever is the earliest.
- Projects validated with previous versions may continue to use these methodologies until they have to transition to the next methodology or until their next baseline reassessment or crediting period renewal, whichever is the earliest.
- See the “Transition Process by Project Status” webpage for information on adopting VM0048
- See the “VM0048 and VMD0055 – Frequently Asked Questions” webpage
Development History
VM0015 Methodology for Avoided Unplanned Deforestation, v1.2
Status: Active since December 18, 2023
Mitigation Outcome Label Eligibility: Not Eligible
Summary of Changes:
- Incorporated the December 13, 2014 erratum regarding the omission of error propagation (0Box 2) and the November 3, 2017 clarification regarding postdeforestation carbon stock increase (former Section 6.1, current Section 6.6.2).
- Incorporated procedures for bias correction (Section 8.1.2). Excluded carbon stock enhancement. Added a requirement to determine the most plausible baseline scenario to align with the VCS Methodology Requirements and applicability conditions of VT0001 (Section 6.1).
- Added a stepwise process to test significance (Appendix 2).
- Excluded the modeling approach to project future deforestation.
- Updated requirements to delineate the reference region (Section 5.1.1).
- Updated:
- Utilization of the most recent VCS Methodology Template to facilitate reporting,
- References for the duration of baseline validity and historical reference periods to the
- VCS Standard and VCS Methodology Requirements, respectively,
- Document references.
- Made minor editorial corrections.
Developer(s): Verra
Dates of Public Consultation: N/A
Summary of Public Consultation: N/A
VVB Assessment Report(s): N/A – minor revision
Announcement(s): Verra Updates Existing REDD Methodology and Module, Inactivates REDD Module
VM0015 Methodology for Avoided Unplanned Deforestation, v1.1 (PDF)
Status: Active from December 3, 2012 to December 17, 2023
Mitigation Outcome Label Eligibility: Not Eligible
Summary of Changes:
The methodology was revised to account for the decay of carbon from the below-ground biomass, dead wood, soil carbon and medium-term harvested wood product pools. Revisions were made to section 6.1.2 and Appendix 3. Additional revisions have also been incorporated into the methodology. Specifically, litter is included as an optional pool, sampling techniques are provided as an option for developing land-use/land cover maps, the steps to analyze deforestation constraints is removed, and a process to project future land-use/land cover with zones is provided. The following minor updates have also been incorporated into the methodology:
- The word “guidelines” when referring to Jurisdictional and Nested REDD was changed to “requirements”.
- Equations 6.a, 6.b and 6.c were corrected to avoid negative areas.
- Equations 7.b and 12.c were corrected (“e” is the Euler Number).
- The minimum threshold requirements for the Figure of Merit (FOM) were changed and made consistent with the corresponding module of VM0007.
- The definition of the minimum mapping unit was updated to be consistent with the definition found in the VCS JNR Requirements.
- An error was corrected in equation A3-17 (the factor 44/12 to convert tons of C to tons of CO2-e was missing).
Developer(s): Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (external), World Bank BioCarbon Fund (external), Carbon Decisions International (external), Institute for the Conservation and Sustainable Development of Amazonas
Dates of Public Consultation: N/A
Summary of Public Consultation: N/A
VVB Assessment Report(s): Methodology Review Report for VM0015, v1.1 (PDF)
Errata and Clarifications: Errata and Clarifications to VM0015, v1.1 (PDF)
VM0015 Methodology for Avoided Unplanned Deforestation, v1.0 (PDF)
Status: Active from June 12, 2011 to December 2, 2012
Mitigation Outcome Label Eligibility: Not Eligible
Developer(s): Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (external), World Bank BioCarbon Fund (external)
Dates of Public Consultation: July 14, 2009 to August 13, 2009
Summary of Public Consultation: Comment #1 (PDF), Comment #2 (PDF)
VVB Assessment Report(s): First Assessment Report for VM0015, v1.0 (PDF), Second Assessment Report for VM0015, v1.0 (PDF)