Laguna Seca Forest Carbon Project

Audit Analysis

The Laguna Seca Forest Carbon Project is a VCS ALM project in Belize with VVB-confirmed additionality and a buffer pool in place, but it carries material integrity concerns stemming from a mid-crediting-period ownership change that was inadequately assessed for its impact on additionality and baseline, an unaddressed offsite-harvesting leakage pathway, and a project-specific baseline with no documented reassessment. The VVB verified only about half of the ERR claimed in the monitoring report, and 18 corrective actions remain open, indicating significant documentation and methodological gaps.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Ownership change from The Forestland Group to The Nature Conservancy (Dec 2020) was flagged in the verification report as inadequately assessed for its implications on additionality and baseline validity
• ⚠Offsite harvesting leakage was not considered in the monitoring period, and a corrective action requires assessment per VMD0009 — a material gap for an improved-forest-management project
• ⚠Buffer pool percentage is contradictory across documents: 27% in the 2016 verification report versus 10% in the 2023 issuance record, with no explanation for the change
• ⚠The VVB verified only 704,983 tCO₂e against a claimed 1,397,402 tCO₂e in the monitoring report — a 50% reduction that signals significant uncertainty or methodological corrections
• ⚠Reversal events are described as 'not addressed' in the most recent verification report (Feb 2023), despite a Non-permanence Risk Report being referenced but not uploaded

Credit Vintages