Fresh Breeze Afforestation Project

Audit Analysis

The Fresh Breeze Afforestation Project is a long-running VCS ALM project in Mexico with a 53-year crediting period, verified by AENOR CONFÍA. While no reversal events have been reported and a 10% buffer pool is in place, the project carries notable concerns: a 29% discrepancy between the monitoring report and verification report on verified emissions reductions, a shift in leakage treatment from quantified to deemed negligible, and a reduction in the buffer pool from 14% to 10%. The additionality test type is inconsistent across documents (common practice vs. combined), and the project-specific baseline has no documented reassessment despite the 10-year interval having passed in 2019.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Verified ERR of 74,333 in the 2025 verification report is 29% higher than the 57,756 reported in the 2025 monitoring report — an unusual upward adjustment by the VVB that undermines confidence in the MRV chain
• ⚠Leakage treatment shifted from a quantified deduction (2021 verification report) to 0% deemed negligible (2025 verification report) without a clear documented rationale for the change
• ⚠Buffer pool reduced from 14% (2021 verification report) to 10% (2025 verification report), weakening the permanence safeguard
• ⚠Additionality test type is inconsistent: the 2025 monitoring report states 'common practice' while the 2021 monitoring report states 'combined' — AR-ACM0003 v1 typically requires a combined test
• ⚠Baseline reassessment was due in 2019 (10-year interval from the 2009 project start) but no reassessment date is found in any available document

Credit Vintages