Verra has released a new module for reduced impact logging that extends its improved forest management methodology to the northern Republic of the Congo, opening a new geography for carbon crediting in natural forest concessions, according to Verra. For buyers of forest carbon credits and for developers active in central African forestry, the release turns a long-running methodology development process into an operational route to quantifying and crediting emission reductions from improved logging practices.
What the new module does
The module, VMD0063 Performance Method for Reduced Impact Logging in Natural Forest in the North of the Republic of the Congo, v1.0, was released on 4 November 2026 for use under VM0035 Methodology for Improved Forest Management through Reduced Impact Logging, v1.0 in the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program, according to Verra. It expands the geographic applicability of VM0035, which until now was equipped with modules for Indonesia (East and North Kalimantan) and Mexico (Yucatán).
VM0035 enables logging concessions that meet the module’s applicability conditions to generate carbon credits when they implement reduced impact logging practices that go beyond common practice in the sector. These improved practices reduce avoidable damage to standing trees and the surrounding forest during timber harvesting, thereby cutting the greenhouse gas emissions associated with forest degradation, according to Verra.
The central function of VMD0063 is baseline data. To apply VM0035 in a new region, developers need robust regional baseline data on the damage caused by conventional timber extraction, particularly to the trees remaining after harvest. The module provides this baseline information for the northern region of the Republic of the Congo, allowing qualifying forest concessions to apply the methodology and quantify emission reductions, according to Verra.
How VM0035 quantifies emission reductions
VM0035 is applicable to projects that implement reduced impact logging for climate (RIL-C) practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in one or more of three emission source categories: timber felling, skidding and hauling, according to the methodology document.
RIL-C practices may entail a range of improved logging and harvest planning measures, including directional felling, improved log bucking, improved harvest planning via pre-harvest inventory, skid trail planning and monocable winching, and reductions in the width of haul roads and the size of log landings. To ensure credible estimation of emission reductions, the impact parameters applied by the methodology are quantitative and outcome-based, rather than process-based. The methodology is designed so that reductions achieved on one impact parameter are not reversed by excessive emissions on another, according to Verra.
The methodology has been active since 28 April 2016 under sectoral scope 14, covering forestry and other land use, with reductions as its mitigation outcome label. It was developed by The Nature Conservancy and TerraCarbon, and it must always be used in conjunction with a region-specific performance method module. With VMD0063 released, the module list now stands at three: VMD0047 for East and North Kalimantan, VMD0063 for the Republic of the Congo and VMD0064 for the Yucatan Peninsula, according to Verra.
The module’s path through review
VMD0063 was developed by The Nature Conservancy, drawing on data and experience from its work with forest concessions in the Republic of the Congo to characterize timber-harvesting practices and their impacts on residual forests, according to Verra.
The draft went through a public consultation that ran from 11 March to 10 April 2025, under development ID M0183, according to Verra. The draft was prepared by The Nature Conservancy as an external developer and reviewed by Verra, which also published a request for proposals for validation and verification bodies to assess it. The module quantifies emission reductions associated with RIL-C practices in the natural forests of the northern Republic of the Congo, which host several important logging concessions, and it was created with data from various timber concessions so that it applies to a wide range of conditions, locations and concession ownerships, according to Verra.
Before its release, the proposal reached Step 5, VVB Assessment, of the VCS Methodology Development and Review Process, according to the module’s development page. The 4 November release completes that path from consultation to an approved, usable module.
Implications for buyers and project developers
For buyers, the release widens the potential supply of improved forest management credits into a region where the methodology previously had no operational baseline. Because VM0035’s parameters are outcome-based rather than process-based, credits generated under it rest on measured damage reductions against a regional baseline, a design feature that simplifies due diligence questions about how reductions are calculated.
For developers and concession operators in the northern Republic of the Congo, the module removes the main technical barrier to applying VM0035: the absence of regional baseline data on conventional harvesting damage. The module’s stated applicability across a wide range of conditions and concession ownerships means eligibility is not limited to a single operator or site configuration, according to Verra.
What to watch
The first signal is project registration: whether concessions in the northern Republic of the Congo move to list projects under VM0035 paired with VMD0063. The second is whether the module’s release stimulates demand for validation and verification capacity in the region. The third is whether further regional modules follow, extending reduced impact logging crediting to additional geographies beyond Kalimantan, the Yucatan and now the Republic of the Congo.
