This document aims to provide streamlined guidance to project proponents and developers to help navigate these challenges. It focuses on outlining key steps and components of developing a forest carbon project that can produce marketable emissions reductions under what are currently the most widely utilized carbon standards: the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and, for co-certification, the Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards.
Forest carbon project development requires carbon benefits to be quantified using rigorous methodological approaches, elaborated in a Project Design Document (PDD), independently validated and later verified for issuance of certified carbon credits. A significant portion of this guide focuses on these technical elements. However, project development requires work far beyond the already-challenging PDD compilation and (at least two) third-party auditing processes; it also encompasses crucial business, legal, environmental and community relations dimensions. This guide attempts to outline the key actions and considerations to ensure a successful and sustainable project. A considerable amount of guidance information is already available for forest carbon project developers, and this guide aims to complement rather than replace these, referring to existing tools and resources for specific steps of the project development process.