Madre De Dios Amazon REDD+ Project

Audit Analysis

The Madre De Dios Amazon REDD+ Project has a confirmed investment-test additionality and a 10% buffer pool with no reported reversals, but is undermined by five material findings, nine corrective actions, a project-specific baseline, and a significant discrepancy between the monitoring report's self-reported ERR (833,008 tCO2e) and the VVB-verified figure (984,636 tCO2e). The project's safeguards documentation (FPIC, grievance mechanism) is present in the most recent verification reports but was absent in earlier appendices, creating a record inconsistency.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Nine corrective actions (CAR 01/14 through CAR 09/14) were issued, including a finding that GIS-processed areas in the monitoring report differ from the descriptive memory and GIS maps, meaning emission reductions were not calculated properly
• ⚠The monitoring report (Oct 2020) reports verified ERR of 833,008 tCO2e while the verification report (Aug 2021) reports 984,636 tCO2e — an 18% discrepancy that raises questions about the accuracy of the project's self-monitoring
• ⚠Five material findings include methodology deviations on the buffer allocation equation and use of non-specified satellite interpretation software (ERDAS instead of ENVI 4.7)
• ⚠Crediting period is stated as 2014–2018 in the 2019 verification report but 2009–2046 in the 2021 monitoring report, creating uncertainty about the project's actual crediting window

Credit Vintages