Bale Mountains Eco-region REDD+ project

Audit Analysis

The Bale Mountains REDD+ project has a VVB-verified additionality assessment and no reported reversal events, but is undermined by an extensive list of material findings (over 40 items), a 9× discrepancy in the KML project-area shapefile, a buffer pool reduction from 15% to 10%, a shift in leakage treatment from quantified to deemed negligible, and unresolved double-counting concerns with overlapping OFLP and ICS projects. The project delivered 124% of the pro-rata ex-ante expectation for the 2020–2021 monitoring period, which is reassuring, but the data-quality and documentation gaps significantly erode confidence in the underlying figures.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠KML shapefile area of 3 million hectares did not match the stated project boundary of 333,924 hectares — a 9× discrepancy that calls into question the spatial basis of all ERR calculations
• ⚠Buffer pool reduced from 15% (2017 verification) to 10% (2024 verification) without a clearly documented justification in the extracted record
• ⚠Leakage treatment shifted from 'quantified' (2021 verification) to 'deemed negligible' with a 0% deduction (2024 verification), a material weakening of the leakage safeguard for a REDD+ project in a high-deforestation-risk region
• ⚠Unclear assessment of double-counting risk with overlapping OFLP and ICS projects; corrective action required to verify cookstove distribution linkage to certified ICS projects
• ⚠Baseline last reassessment date not stated in any available document; the 10-year reassessment milestone (project start 2012) appears to have passed before the November 2024 verification

Credit Vintages