Carbon Sequestration in Small and Medium Farms in the Brunca Region, Costa Rica (COOPEAGRI Project)

Audit Analysis

A CDM reforestation project in Costa Rica with a verified barrier-test additionality assessment and independent VVB (AENOR), but significant concerns around baseline accuracy (the project delivered only ~46% of the pro-rata expectation for the first monitoring period), a project-specific baseline with no documented reassessment, and unquantified permanence protections. The safeguards documentation is inconsistent between the validation and monitoring reports, and FPIC was not conducted.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠The verified ERR of 34,896 tCO₂e for the first monitoring period is only ~46% of the pro-rata expectation (~76,500 tCO₂e), raising serious questions about baseline accuracy and the validity of the ex-ante estimates.
• ⚠The validation report (CAR 10) explicitly states the additionality assessment 'is not robust and clear,' and while corrective actions were subsequently resolved, the underlying weakness in the barrier analysis remains a concern.
• ⚠Permanence is addressed only through tCERs with no quantified buffer pool percentage and reversal events explicitly 'not addressed' in the available documents.
• ⚠FPIC was not conducted and the grievance mechanism is not stated in any available document, representing a gap in community safeguards for a project operating on small and medium farms.
• ⚠Safeguards documentation is contradictory: the validation report references safeguards while the monitoring report does not, creating uncertainty about the project's actual safeguards compliance.
• ⚠Buffer pool size not disclosed in available documents

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