GS1340 Efficient cookstoves in Burkina Faso - VPA-14 - Improved Cookstove F3PA project in Nahouri

Audit Analysis

This Gold Standard cookstove project in Burkina Faso has a VVB-verified combined additionality test and a quantified 5% leakage deduction, but is undermined by a project-specific baseline, a direct contradiction on whether FPIC was conducted, and 22 material findings spanning formula errors, missing data, and cross-document inconsistencies. The ERR figures conflict across verification reports (49,827 vs 169,085), and the VVB identity is inconsistent (SustainCERT vs Carbon Check India), eroding confidence in the data chain.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠FPIC status directly contradicted: the PDD (May 2022) states FPIC was conducted, while the verification report (Sep 2023) records it as not conducted — a fundamental safeguards gap for a community-facing cookstove project
• ⚠22 material findings in the verification report, including a formula error in the monitoring survey sheet affecting Up and DFb values, missing technical specifications, and SDG value discrepancies between the MR and the methodology sheet
• ⚠Verified ERR of 49,827 (2024 verification) conflicts with 169,085 (2023 verification) without a clear cumulative-vs-period explanation, making it impossible to confirm whether credits are being over- or under-issued
• ⚠VVB identity discrepancy: the project record lists SustainCERT, but the material findings state the audit was conducted by Carbon Check India (Sep 2025), raising questions about which body actually verified the project
• ⚠Usage rate declined from 99.09% (2023 monitoring) to 89.86% (2024 monitoring), a roughly 10-percentage-point drop that, if sustained, would erode the credit basis over the remaining crediting period

Credit Vintages