29 August, 2017: Rule update – limited issuance of Planned Emissions Reduction Units (a name change from Validated Certificates) to a maximum of 5 years forward from a verification
- Validated Certificates are hereby renamed as Planned Emission Reductions (PERs)
- The issuance of PERs is now optional – Project Developers may choose not to issue PERs if preferable
- The issuance of PERs is limited to a maximum of 5 years forward from any verification, including for New Area Certifcations
20 March, 2017: Rule update – clarification on the use of GS and IPCC default values for the calculation of carbon sequestration for A/R projects:
Conservative GS default factors have been provided in Boxes 3 and 4 on page 29 of the A/R Requirements for use in baseline and project carbon calculations. If preferred, project developers may also select the more precise IPCC defaults when available in place of the GS defaults for factors relating to tree and non-tree biomass with no justification required.
15 November, 2016: Rule update – clarification on the permitted retroactive project crediting duration for all land use projects (A/R and AGR):
All land use projects shall be permitted to submit retroactive activities up to a maximum of three years from the date of project registration as stated in the updated Retroactive Guideline. This rule shall supersede any previous rules contained in the A/R Requirements and shall also apply to any projects transitioning from other standards (see Transition Guidelines).
15 November, 2016: Rule update – clarification on the use of the A/R Risk Register and Land Use Risks and Capacities assessments for land use project registration:
All land use projects (A/R and AGR) shall follow the Risks and Capacities Guideline and use the Risks and Capacities Template for inclusion in the PDD. The Risks and Capacities assessment supersedes the Risk Register from A/R Requirements version 0.9.
15 November, 2016: Rule update – change to the mapping requirement for smallholder and microscale land use projects:
All A/R and AGR projects involving smallholders and using the Smallholder and Microscale Guidelines shall be required to submit digital polygons of each plot area (as by Google Earth or other online tools, on-site GPS or lidar measurements). A single GPS point and hand-drawn maps will no longer be permitted.
15 November, 2016: Rule update – clarification on the submission of carbon performance data for A/R project certification:
All carbon emission and sequestration figures shall be submitted using the templates available on the Gold Standard A/R website, and shall not be submitted using resources available at www.climateprojects.info or submitted to an account through this website as these are no longer available.
19 December, 2016: Rule update – clarification on the definition of project area and project region for A/R projects:
The definition of ‘project area’ is as follows in the A/R Requirements, page 17:
“The project area is the spatial area submitted for certification, managed to a set of explicit long-term management objectives. Within a project region, existing project areas can be expanded and new project areas can be added or removed after the initial certification.”
For clarification, ‘project area’ as the area of certification shall be limited to planting areas, any riparian or other buffer zones located within planting areas, and areas set aside for conservation in accordance with GS requirements. All A/R requirements referring to ‘project area’ shall pertain to these areas only.
Any future project area added to the existing project area that has not fulfilled all requirements at the time of the project’s initial certification must undergo a new area certification to demonstrate compliance before the issuance of any credits from this land.
For areas influenced by the project’s activities, but not subject to all project area requirements, the term ‘project region’ shall be introduced to the A/R Requirements with the following definition:
“The project region is the spatial area where people and environment are influenced by the project activities. A project region can be expanded over time. All project areas are located within the project region.”
The ‘project region’ must be identified in the Key Project Information template and may indicate areas of future project growth through new area certifications.
19 December, 2016: Rule update – clarification on the demonstration of secured title for A/R projects:
According to the A/R Requirements page 22 under Secured Titles, the project must demonstrate that uncontested legal land title and timber rights have been obtained from all project areas.
For clarification, project area shall refer to planting areas, any riparian or other buffer zones located within planting areas, and areas set aside for conservation in accordance with GS requirements only.
16 January, 2017: Rule update – clarification on the use of the A/R Soil Carbon Calculation Tool for A/R projects:
Projects complying with all A/R Requirements sufficient to certify their project activities with the Gold Standard may use the A/R Soil Carbon Tool in order to earn soil carbon credits with no additional monitoring required.
The A/R Soil Carbon Tool estimates the change in soil organic carbon stocks due to the planting of forests and applies to soils on planting areas only. Once a project has undergone a successful Initial Certification, VERs generated using this tool may be issued for previous vintages following a successful performance certification. Projects may not issue validated credits resulting from this calculation tool.
Use of the A/R Soil Carbon Tool to earn additional carbon credits costs $500 and is subject to a successful review by the Secretariat. For more information, see A/R Soil Carbon Tool under the A/R Guidelines and contact the Land Use Secretariat
AFFORESTATION/REFORESTATION REQUIREMENTS
REQUEST FOR CLARIFICATION /h3>
If you require any clarifications on our Gold Standard A/R requirements, please feel free to submit a request to our Senior Land Use Manager for Land Use & Forests. Please provide any background information on your case and state whether this can be made publicly available on our website. It usually takes between 3-4 weeks to formulate our response. Previous submissions can be found below:
ID: 007
Date: 15 February 2016
Version: A/R Requirements 0.9
Requirements: Page 13
Status: Active
Clarification request: Is it possible to provide maps in high resolution pdf-format instead of shape files whereby the possibility for the auditor to check the consistency of the Modeling Units (MUs) in the field and the software remains?
Background information: The project owner does not have map material in the form of shape files but in the form of high resolute maps in pdf-format.
Clarification statement: Priority is given to the ability for the auditor to be able to check consistency of Modeling Units (MUs) in the field and the software that was used for the creation of maps.
ID: 006
Date: 29 September 2014
Version: A/R Requirements 0.9
Requirements: Page 3
Status: Active
Clarification request: Can a project area be certified and issue CO2 certificates, when its not YET certified according to FSC.
Background information: The project is already registered under Gold Standard with a total area of 3,200 ha and is FSC certified since 2009. It is doing a “New Area Certification” in September 2014. The last FSC re-certification (which is conducted annually) took place in May 2014. Between May and September 90 ha were additionally planted and are now missing in the FSC certification. According to the project owner there areas will be certified in the next FSC re-certification in 2015.
Clarification statement: Under the circumstances outlined, Gold Standard sees little risk that this “Non-conformity (NC)” of the project will not be resolved next year. Thus, certification according to Gold Standard can be granted to the entire project. Still, for the project area that has not YET been certified, no CO2 certificates shall be issued until it is FSC certified.
ID: 005
Date: 25 June 2014
Version: A/R Requirements 0.9
Requirement: Page 13, Chapter 2 – key project information
Status: Active (will be implemented in the next version)
Clarification request: Please clarify how boundaries of the ‘planting area’ shall be made clearly distinguishable in the field, when the ‘planting area’ directly borders an existing forest (conservation area of the project) and the purpose of the proposed A/R project is to expand the existing forest by means of reforestation of a ‘conservation forest’.
Background information: N/a
Clarification statement: Proper maps shall be provided to the auditor in order to confirm the boundary lines in the field.
ID: 004
Date: 28 March 2014
Version: A/R Requirements 0.9
Requirement: Page 31 – Carbon Pools
Status: Active (will be implemented in the next version)
Clarification request: Please clarify how the newly published ‘A/R soil guideline’ can be used in combination with the ‘A/R requirements’?
Background information: N/A
Clarification statement: The carbon pool ‘soil carbon’ is from now an ‘optional’ element within the A/R Requirements. Existing projects can apply the tool for its projects. Approval needs to be provided by Gold Standard in order to confirm the additional CO2-certificates.
ID: 003
Date: 24 March 2014
Version: A/R Requirements 0.9
Requirement: Page 31 – Carbon Pools
Status: Active
Clarification request: Please clarify if the ‘soil carbon tool’ as part of the ‘A/R soil guideline’ can be accepted and used in combinations with the ‘A/R requirements’?
Background information: N/A
Clarification statement: The ‘A/R soil carbon tool’ has been approved by our Technical Advisory Committee and can now be used in conjunction with the A/R Requirements.
ID: 002
Date: 25 January 2014
Version: A/R Requirements 0.9
Requirements: Page 7 – Chapter 1 – Definitions
Status: Active
Clarification request: Can fruit trees which for a forest gain GS certification?
Background information: N/A
Clarification statement: Yes. There is no differentiation made between fruit and other types of tree.
ID: 001
Date: 18 November 2013
Version: A/R Requirements 0.9
Requirement: Chapter 5.4
Status: Active (will be implemented in the next version)
Clarification request: Why does nitrogen fertilizer in A/R projects need to be accounted for?
Background information: In the current GS A/R requirements (chapter 5.4) nitrogen fertilizer needs to be accounted for. Other carbon standards such as CDM or VCS have disposed of this requirement for forestry projects as they consider it insignificant by default. In their feedback to the GS A/R requirements several stakeholders have raised the issue of complex and expensive monitoring which will prevent projects being registered under Gold Standard. The removal of the fertilizer monitoring requirement would be one step towards reducing development and monitoring efforts and costs and is in line with the requirements of other standards.
Clarification statement: The Technical Advisory Committee and Gold Standard Secretariat have agreed to remove the requirement on accounting for nitrogen fertilizer emissions to the project emissions.