Saving Colombia's Cloud Forest

Audit Analysis

Saving Colombia's Cloud Forest is a VCS ALM soil-carbon project with a VVB-verified combined additionality test and a 12% buffer pool, but it is undermined by a severe under-delivery of verified credits relative to the lifetime ex-ante estimate (approximately 5.5% of the pro-rata expectation for the six-year monitoring period), a 0% leakage deduction justified only as 'negligible' in a project type where displaced activity is plausible, and a verification report that records FPIC as not conducted. Eight contradictions across documents and a low extraction-confidence rating further erode confidence in the data record.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Verified ERR of 2,599 tCO2e for the 2017–2022 monitoring period represents only ~5.5% of the pro-rata expectation derived from the 316,797 tCO2e lifetime ex-ante estimate over the 40-year crediting period, indicating a major gap between the PDD baseline and observed sequestration.
• ⚠The verification report (2024) records FPIC as not conducted, while the monitoring report (2025) states it was conducted; the verification report is privileged as the more authoritative compliance document.
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% with a justification of 'deemed negligible' in the verification report, while the monitoring report describes leakage as 'quantified'—an unresolved contradiction in a project type where displaced deforestation or land-use change is a realistic risk.
• ⚠A Forward Action Request in the verification report flags that ownership of 16.67% of the La Risaralda property has not been regularised, raising legal-title risk over a portion of the project area.
• ⚠36 Corrective Action Requests were issued during verification (all resolved), indicating significant data-quality or reporting issues that had to be corrected before issuance.

Credit Vintages Exhausted