Riscales REDD+ Project

Audit Analysis

The Riscales REDD+ project in Chocó, Colombia has a VVB-verified additionality assessment and a 12% buffer pool with no reported reversals, but a serious contradiction between the 2024 PDD (15% leakage deduction) and the 2025 validation report (0% leakage) undermines confidence in the leakage treatment. The project delivered roughly 62% of its pro-rata ex-ante expectation for the elapsed monitoring period, which is conservative, yet three open Future Action Requests—including a double-counting assessment—remain unresolved. Overall, the project shows moderate integrity with notable data-reliability concerns.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Leakage deduction dropped from 15% in the 2024 PDD to 0% in the 2025 validation report, with the justification shifting from 'not addressed' (2018 PDD) to 'quantified' (2025 validation)—a material and unexplained change in a high-deforestation-risk region (Chocó, Colombia).
• ⚠Three Future Action Requests remain open, including a requirement to assess the evolution of jurisdictional REDD+ programs in Chocó to rule out double-counting (FAR3) and to geolocate subtracted areas (FAR2).
• ⚠Lifetime ex-ante ERR was reduced from 5,617,196 tCO₂e (2018 PDD) to 3,099,560 tCO₂e (2025 validation), a 45% downward revision that warrants scrutiny of the underlying assumptions.
• ⚠Baseline is project-specific and the date of last reassessment is not stated in any available document; the 2023 verification report lists a corrective action to 'reassess and validate baseline for the period after 1 April 2020,' suggesting the reassessment may still be pending.

Credit Vintages