LOWER ZAMBEZI REDD+ PROJECT

Audit Analysis

The Lower Zambezi REDD+ Project is a long-running (30-year crediting period) soil carbon project with confirmed additionality and a 21% buffer pool, but it carries significant integrity concerns including a documented excess issuance of 55,164 VCUs from measurement errors, illegal logging events within the project area, and a failure to demonstrate no net harm. The project over-delivers relative to its pro-rata ex-ante expectation (130%), yet the volume of corrective actions across multiple verification cycles and the inability to reproduce GHG calculations from available documentation raise serious quality and transparency questions.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Excess issuance of 55,164 VCUs and 8,621 buffer credits due to measurement error in multi-stemmed tree inventory, requiring retrospective cancellation
• ⚠Illegal timber harvesting (306 Pterocarpus stumps) and encroachment/clearing within the project area during monitoring periods
• ⚠No demonstration of no net harm and insufficient demonstration of AFOLU-specific safeguards identified in verification
• ⚠PAA size discrepancy of 1,471 ha between GIS files (34,809 ha) and monitoring report text (33,338 ha)
• ⚠VVB reports across multiple cycles failed to provide sufficient detail to reproduce GHG emission reduction calculations, baseline emissions, or leakage determinations

Credit Vintages