Family Forest Carbon Project

Audit Analysis

The Family Forest Carbon Project (VCS-4268) is a US soil-carbon project under VM0003 v1.3 with a combined additionality test confirmed by an independent VVB and a 12% buffer pool. However, the project delivered only about 23% of its pro-rata ex-ante expectation for the elapsed monitoring period, and a project-specific baseline combined with a FAR on grouped-project revenue plausibility introduce moderate over-crediting risk. Documentation is reasonably complete with 35 source documents and a recent verification, though several cross-document contradictions required resolution by recency.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Verified ERR of 127,613 tCO₂e for the 8-month monitoring period represents only ~23% of the pro-rata ex-ante expectation (~564,000 tCO₂e), indicating significant under-delivery relative to the lifetime estimate of 21.15 million tCO₂e
• ⚠One FAR was raised regarding grouped project eligibility criteria for revenue plausibility, and PAI 1134 boundaries were adjusted with VCUs corrected, suggesting initial scoping issues
• ⚠A PAI dropped from the project during the monitoring period, resulting in a loss to overall accounting (acknowledged in the verification report detail despite the summary field stating 'none reported')
• ⚠CORSIA eligibility and CCP status are not stated in any available document, leaving dual-channel risk unassessed

Credit Vintages