The Russas Project

Audit Analysis

The Russas Project is a VCS REDD avoidance project in Brazil with a verified additionality test and a 10% buffer pool, but it carries an unusually large volume of material findings spanning legal compliance (missing CCIR), undelivered community benefits, multiple methodology deviations in biomass and uncertainty calculations, and underestimation of non-permanence risk. The VVB confirmed 566,950 tCO₂e for the 2018–2020 monitoring period, which is roughly 4.7× the pro-rata share of the lifetime ex-ante estimate, raising questions about the conservatism of the original baseline. Ten Forward Action Requests remain open, and the project's legal standing in Brazil is uncertain due to the absence of the Rural Property Registration Certificate.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠CCIR (Rural Property Registration Certificate) not obtained; the project may be in violation of Federal Law No. 5,868 for conferring land titles without it
• ⚠10 Forward Action Requests remain open, including unresolved community benefit delivery, land titling, and grievance mechanism effectiveness
• ⚠Non-permanence risk scores were found to be underestimated across five risk components (financial, longevity, land rights, community, fire) per NCR#08/17
• ⚠Multiple methodology deviations in biomass estimation (Cairns equation, paraboloid volume, dead-wood sampling below minimum) and uncertainty calculations (missing Equations 4 and 5)
• ⚠Leakage deduction percentage is not stated in the extracted record despite leakage being described as quantified; NCR#09/17 flagged outdated data in the AVFOR leakage calculation

Credit Vintages