RESTORATION OF HOMESTEAD LAND OF POOR RURAL COMMUNITIES IN ASSAM & MEGHALAYA

Audit Analysis

A newly registered VCS ALM soil-carbon project in Assam and Meghalaya with VVB-confirmed additionality and a 12% buffer pool, but the validation process surfaced 27 corrective action requests and multiple evidence gaps in permanence, leakage, and baseline documentation. The project is too early in its crediting period to have any verified monitoring data, and several key parameters (FNRB method, usage monitoring, CORSIA eligibility) remain unstated. Overall, the project meets minimum VCS registration thresholds but carries elevated risk of over-crediting due to a project-specific baseline and an inadequately assessed non-permanence risk.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Non-permanence risk report (NPRR) was flagged as not sufficiently assessed in the validation report, yet the reversal_events field in the appendix states reversals were 'reported' — a direct contradiction that undermines confidence in the 12% buffer adequacy
• ⚠Leakage deduction of 0% is justified as 'deemed negligible,' but the validation report's material findings explicitly note 'Missing information on leakage determination and assessment,' meaning the negligible claim lacks documented support
• ⚠27 Corrective Action Requests were raised during validation, including insufficient evidence for additionality elements, alternative land-use scenarios, project ownership, and grouped-project eligibility — indicating the project met the bar only after substantial remediation
• ⚠Lifetime ERR discrepancy of ~13.6% between the PDD (5,885,165 tCO₂e) and the validation report (6,687,888 tCO₂e) with no documented reconciliation
• ⚠Crediting period changed from 2023–2042 (PDD, 2022) to 2024–2053 (validation report, 2024) without a clear explanation in the extracted record

Credit Vintages

No issuances recorded on the registry.