Raízes do Bem Grouped ARR Project

Audit Analysis

The Raízes do Bem Grouped ARR Project is a VCS soil-carbon restoration project in Brazil with a VVB-verified combined additionality test and a 23% buffer pool, but it carries moderate integrity risk due to a project-specific baseline, a 0% leakage deduction justified only as 'deemed negligible,' and a substantial number of material findings (17 CLs, 15 CARs) during validation. The project over-delivered relative to its pro-rata ex-ante expectation for the first monitoring period, which is encouraging, but several key parameters (FNRB, usage rates, CORSIA/CCP status) remain unstated, limiting full transparency and claim-safety assessment.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Leakage deduction of 0% with only a 'deemed negligible' justification and no quantified analysis, which is a weak basis for a soil-carbon project in a region with active land-use change
• ⚠Material findings during validation questioned the coherence of carbon storage calculations (abrupt changes in year 20) and the use of the older AR-AMS0007 methodology over the newer VM0047, raising concerns about the robustness of the ex-ante estimates
• ⚠Additionality for APP/RL areas was challenged on the grounds of legal restoration requirements under Brazil's Forest Code; the VVB accepted the project's argument of widespread non-compliance, but this remains a structurally weaker additionality case
• ⚠Multiple contradictions across documents (buffer pool 15% vs 23%, lifetime ERR 12,211 vs 15,432, FPIC true vs false) indicate inconsistent public-facing information

Credit Vintages

No issuances recorded on the registry.