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Overview 
Verra today released the results from the second component of its quality control review (QCR) of the Kariba REDD+ Project. This component was a safeguards-focused review that was conducted following the earlier carbon accounting review.
Verra had asked the project’s validation/verification bodies (VVBs) to reassess whether the project met Verra’s safeguards-related rules and requirements at the time of the VVBs’ original assessments, considering the serious allegations raised through media reporting.
The VVBs revisited their original audit work, which included site visit reports, community interviews, and financial records. In doing so, the VVBs could not identify evidence of a breach of Verra’s rules in the three areas they examined for that time period: trophy hunting, benefit sharing, and financial compliance.
However, it is important to re-emphasize what this review could and could not determine.
The VVBs could only reassess the evidence available to them at the time of their original audits, conducted years before the media allegations emerged. The fact that Carbon Green Investments, the project proponent, withdrew the project from the Verra Registry during the QCR process prevented the VVBs from gathering new evidence pertaining to the time of their original assessment.
The full QCR reports are available on the project’s registry page.
The Kariba project review has been one of the most complex cases Verra has ever reviewed, involving various serious allegations, an inactivated first-generation methodology, and a proponent who withdrew the project from the registry while reviews were still ongoing.
Verra continues to enhance its rules and requirements on a regular basis. Most significantly, the latest version of the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program, released in December 2025, represents the most comprehensive update to Verra’s flagship standard in its history, embedding stronger social and environmental safeguards, stricter benefit-sharing requirements, and enhanced financial transparency obligations.
A project of this type seeking registration today would face a materially higher bar.