Afforestation on Degraded Lands in Mountainous Areas of Northern Guangdong, China

Audit Analysis

A Gold Standard afforestation project on degraded lands in northern Guangdong with a reputable VVB (TÜV NORD CERT), a 20% buffer pool, and no reported reversal events. However, the project-specific baseline, a 0% leakage deduction justified only as 'deemed negligible,' the absence of FPIC, and a 34% under-delivery against the pro-rata ex-ante expectation introduce moderate risk. The verification process was thorough (29 findings, all closed), but several data gaps and inter-document discrepancies limit confidence.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠FPIC was not conducted despite the project affecting local communities in mountainous Guangdong, and the verification report lists language barriers and weak recording practices among material findings
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% with only a 'deemed negligible' justification — no quantitative analysis or displacement assessment is documented for an A/R project
• ⚠The monitoring report (Jan 2023) claims 72,492 tCO₂e while the verification report (Oct 2022) verifies 90,614 tCO₂e for the same period, a 25% discrepancy that is unexplained in the extracted record
• ⚠The PDD states a crediting period starting in 2014 while the verification report confirms a start date of 2009-01-01, creating ambiguity about the true project duration and baseline reference year

Credit Vintages