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CLIMATE, COMMUNITY & BIODIVERSITY STANDARDS

Promoting excellence and innovation in land use projects

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Photo by Filip Agoo for Wildlife Works Kasigau Project

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Program Overview

Supporting land use projects in addressing climate change, benefitting local communities and smallholders, and conserving biodiversity.

Land management is an important element of sustainable development. When thoughtfully designed, land management projects can protect endangered species, increase the resiliency of ecosystems, and help combat climate change. At the same time, the communities in and around these projects can benefit from new jobs, gain access to health and education, get help in securing tenure to lands and resources, and protect traditional cultures. The CCB Standards represent assurance that a given project is delivering tangible climate, community, and biodiversity benefits. They can be applied to any land management project, including afforestation, sustainable agriculture, and grassland management. They can be applied exclusively to a project or in conjunction with VCS certification.

The CCB Program requires that project leaders incorporate the principles and requirements of the CCB Standards to ensure that projects: 

  • Identify all stakeholders and ensure their full and effective participation;
  • Recognize and respect customary and statutory rights;
  • Obtain free, prior, and informed consent;
  • Assess and monitor direct and indirect costs, benefits, and risks; and
  • Identify and maintain high conservation values.

Global Demand, Global Impact

Global demand for carbon credits with benefits such as those associated with the CCB Standards, creates a price premium that can help projects scale up their impact.The CCB Program  is the leading standard used in conjunction with VCS agriculture, forestry, and land-use (AFOLU) projects, and the CCB Program’s growth is accelerating.

More than 120 projects have been validated to CCB Standards to date, with more than 100 having verified climate, community, and biodiversity benefits. These projects span more than 48 countries on every continent except Antarctica.

How It Works

Projects developed under the CCB Program must follow a rigorous assessment process to be certified.

CCB STANDARDS

The CCB Standards (PDF) lay out the rules and requirements that all projects must follow in order to be certified.

INDEPENDENT AUDITING

All CCB projects are subject to desk and field audits by qualified independent third parties to ensure that they meet the standards and apply their methodologies properly.

ACCOUNTING METHODS

Projects select appropriate and defensible methods to quantify project benefits to meet the CCB Standards requirements.

REGISTRY SYSTEM

The Verra Registry is the central repository for all information and documentation related to CCB projects. The registry facilitates public comment periods, and records the generation, retirement, and cancellation of all Verified Carbon Units that bear a CCB label, which indicates that an emission reduction unit was generated during a CCB-verified period.

The CCB Standards are managed by Verra but were developed through a multi-stakeholder process by the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance, a partnership of CARE, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, the Rainforest Alliance and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

See Recent CCB News

Starting a Project: What to Expect

Looking to develop a project using the Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standards? This section outlines important information you should know before you begin.

1. Before You Begin

Before designing a CCB project, please note:

  • The CCB Standards are meant for land use projects (afforestation, reforestation, REDD, agriculture etc.).
  • Project developers are required to have a thorough understanding of the project area and drivers of change.
  • To be eligible under the CCB Standards, a project must have specific and measurable climate, community, and biodiversity objectives, and demonstrate impact in all three areas.
  • A project must involve communities and stakeholders through full and effective participation.

For more details on the above, please review the CCB Standards.

2. Fees and Finances

Project and program development costs vary depending on the circumstances and fall into three categories:

  • Verra fees as outlined in Section 2 of the CCB Program Fee Schedule.
  • Project and program development fees include project development and operations, monitoring, and consultants fees.
  • Auditing fees payable directly to the validation/verification body (VVB).

As a standard-setting body, Verra does not track external costs (those associated with project and program development or auditing).

3. How to Certify a Project

Projects must demonstrate compliance with the CCB Standards and the CCB Program Rules. The CCB Standards lists the requirements for how a project must be designed, implemented, and monitored to generate climate, community, and biodiversity benefits. The CCB Program Rules sets out the requirements for validation and verification and for the project’s administration.

An approved VVB must validate a project’s design and verify its benefits and adherence to the CCB Standards and CCB Program Rules.

Projects using the CCB Standards and a Verra-approved greenhouse gas (GHG) program (currently only the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program), may use a more streamlined validation and verification process, which also allows any GHG credits to be affixed with the CCB label.

For projects getting certified in both the VCS and the CCB Program, combined templates are available to streamline the certification process.

Visit the CCB program details

All the documents and details to engage with the CCB

CCB at a glance

  • 52

    Projects

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  • 298M+

    CCB-labeled VCUs

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  • 48+

    Countries with projects using the CCB Standards

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