AmericanCarbon Registry Nested REDD+ Requirements

Winrock International’s American Carbon Registry (ACR) is developing technical guidance for REDD+ projects nested within ajurisdictional accounting framework. Project-level REDD+ activities – includingconservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests, andenhancement of forest carbon stocks – are eligible to register on ACR and, uponrelease of the ACR Nested REDD+ Requirements , will be ableto do so using baseline, leakage, monitoring and other requirements developedat the jurisdictional level provided these meet certain minimum criteria.

“Jurisdiction” here means any politically defined regiondelineated for the purposes of tracking carbon stocks, deforestation rates, andGHG reductions through REDD+ project activities. A jurisdiction may be anational or sub-national political entity (nation, state, province, district,etc.), though other ways of defining jurisdictional boundaries are alsopossible. A “nested” REDD+ project is one that is accounted and monitored inreference to the jurisdictional accounting framework (baseline, leakageassessment, monitoring requirements) in which the project takes place. This canhave the benefit of reducing transaction costs forprojects, allowing them to use the baseline and other requirements developed bythe jurisdiction rather than having to develop these at the project level; meanwhile,creating such frameworks can help jurisdictions attract private capital forREDD.

However, to be confident thatnested REDD+ projects registered on ACR meet the same high quality standards asnon-nested projects, it is important to establish the criteria thatjurisdictional baselines, leakage assessments, monitoring, and reversal riskmitigation must meet in order for projects to register. The Requirements , while not attempting toprescribe how jurisdictions should design their accounting frameworks, do setminimum criteria that must be met in order for a project nested within thatframework to register on ACR. Equally important, the Requirements specify how differences in project-level andjurisdiction-level performance can be reconciled.

The ACR Nested REDD+Requirements build on Winrock’s over fifteen years of experience designingREDD methodologies for a broad range of clients and partners. They are beingdeveloped with input from a Winrock/ACRJurisdictional REDD+ Technical Advisory Team including:

·        Sandra Brown, Winrock International (Co-lead)

·        Nicholas Martin, American Carbon Registry(Co-lead)

·        Jurgen Blaser, Inter-cooperation

·        Nancy Harris, Winrock International

·        Jenny Henman, Independent Consultant

·        Martin Herold, GOFC-GOLD Land CoverImplementation Team/Wageningen University

·        Dan Nepstad, Amazon Scenarios Program, IPAM

·        Marcelo Rocha, Fabrica Ethica Brasil

·        David Saah, Spatial Informatics Group LLC

·        Neil Sampson, The Sampson Group Inc.

As of January 2012, the ACR Nested REDD+Requirements are under review by the technical team. Followingrevisions and an independent ACR public consultation and peer review process,the Requirements will be published inlate spring/early summer 2012.