Reforestation with Teak CO2e TEAKMEX

Audit Analysis

A teak reforestation project in Campeche and Tabasco, Mexico, with a confirmed additionality test and a substantial 31% buffer pool, but undermined by 20 material findings in the 2025 verification report involving formula errors, calculation mistakes, and a missing leakage term. The project-specific baseline, unaddressed leakage justification, and potentially overdue baseline reassessment (10-year mark passed in 2023) create meaningful integrity and over-crediting risks that the buffer pool only partially offsets.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠20 material findings in the 2025 verification report include formula errors in carbon estimation sheets, incorrect Rj value application, area data mismatch between spreadsheet and PDD, and a missing leakage term in column AT formulas — all pointing to systematic calculation weaknesses
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% with the justification recorded as 'not addressed' in the 2025 verification report, contradicting the 2018 verification report which stated it was 'deemed negligible'; for a reforestation project displacing citrus agriculture, zero leakage with no quantified justification is a significant gap
• ⚠Baseline reassessment appears overdue: the project started in June 2013, making the 10-year VCS ALM reassessment due by mid-2023, yet no reassessment date is recorded in any available document as of the February 2025 verification
• ⚠12 corrective actions were required by the VVB, including updating carbon estimation formulas, correcting citrus baseline discounting, and providing ownership evidence for each project instance

Credit Vintages