Abu Ali Island Mangrove Planting Project Eastern Province Saudi Arabia

Audit Analysis

A young mangrove sequestration project in Saudi Arabia with a VVB-confirmed investment test and a 10% buffer pool, but undermined by serious questions about financial additionality (the client, Saudi Aramco, is a financially stable entity), a project-specific baseline, a 0% leakage deduction with minimal justification, and an extraordinary volume of material findings and corrective actions (over 60 each) that raise significant concerns about documentation quality and data reliability. The verified ERR of 122 tCO₂e over the ~5.6-year monitoring period represents only about 0.2% of the pro-rata lifetime expectation, consistent with a project still in its early establishment phase but also reflecting the very small absolute credit volume.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Financial additionality is questionable: the VVB flagged that justification is required because Saudi Aramco is a financially stable client, undermining the investment test that underpins additionality
• ⚠Over 60 material findings and 60+ corrective actions were identified across the validation and PDD documents, including a GPS coordinate error that initially pointed to Ukraine, an area discrepancy (965.64 ha in KMZ vs 1,210 ha in PDD), and a crediting-period inconsistency (30 vs 60 years)
• ⚠FPIC was not conducted according to the more recent validation report (2024-12-16), and proofs of stakeholder consultation were missing from the PDD-MR
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% with only a 'deemed negligible' justification, which is thin for a mangrove project where displacement of natural mangrove protection or diversion of planting efforts could constitute leakage
• ⚠Handwritten field data records in pencil were used for sampling plot measurements, creating a risk of data loss or error

Credit Vintages