DRC REDD+ Carbon Credit Harvesting

Audit Analysis

This DRC REDD+ project presents a very large ex-ante credit volume (approximately 4.2 billion tCO2e over 30 years) supported only by a project design document, with no verified monitoring data available. The 25% buffer pool and presence of FPIC and a grievance mechanism are positive, but the absence of VVB-confirmed additionality, a project-specific baseline, a 0% leakage deduction justified only as 'deemed negligible,' and the apparent overlap between the registry and the VVB raise significant concerns about additionality robustness and over-crediting risk.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠The VVB is listed as the International Carbon Registry (ICR), which appears to be the same entity as the project's registry, raising a serious independence concern
• ⚠0% leakage deduction for a REDD+ project in the DRC justified only as 'deemed negligible' — no site-specific quantification or boundary analysis found
• ⚠No verified monitoring data exists (no monitoring period, no verified ERR), so the 4.2 billion tCO2e claim is entirely unvalidated
• ⚠Additionality test (combined) is present in the PDD but is not confirmed as verified by the VVB
• ⚠Extremely large credit volume (~141 million tCO2e per year) with no independent verification or jurisdictional baseline to anchor the claim

Credit Vintages

No issuances recorded on the registry.