Community guidelines for accessing forestry voluntary carbon ... - FAO

Chapter 5: Project implementation: field work
5.6 Monitoring and verification
Monitoring and verification are largely field-based activities. In order
for the project developer to achieve the ultimate objective of generating
revenue from carbon credits, the project must be verified and certified
by an independent third party once again. In practical terms this means:
1. The project must be implemented as described in the PD or
PDD. The approaches set out in this document have already
been validated by the certifiers.
2. Quantify net carbon benefits by calculating:
a) net emissions and removals in the baseline case;
b) net emissions and removals as a result of project
implementation; and
c) leakage
If verification is done against the VCS standard, the credits are called
Verified Carbon Units (VCUs). If the project is an afforestation or
reforestation (A/R) project under the CDM, they are called Certified
Emission Reductions (CERs) and if it is against a scheme of another
voluntary standard they are labeled Voluntary Emission Reductions
(VERs).
While conducting the verification of the project’s carbon credit claims,
auditors may also verify that the project has been implemented
according to the approved methodology and that the monitoring plan
set out in the PD/PDD has been followed.
Before a verification audit can take place, a monitoring report needs to be
written. For the VCS, this report must follow the prescribed monitoring
report template (see http://www.v-c-s.org/program-documents). The
auditors will check the findings of the monitoring report to validate the
project’s carbon benefit claim.
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