The first ever REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) project in the Amazon Rainforest has been awarded registration under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), it has been announced this week.

 

The project, entitled the 'CIKEL Brazilian Amazon REDD APD Project', a partnership between CIKEL and 33 Forest Capital protects Rainforest, passed rigorous validation standards to be validated by the VCS and the Rainforest Alliance.

The CIKEL Project is located in Para State, Brazil, where 63% of the Amazon Rainforest has already been lost to deforestation practices. CIKEL will work to mitigate and prevent the further deforestation of 27.4 thousand hectares of rainforest via the use of sustainable logging practices certified by the Forest Stewardship Council® and is expected to receive carbon credits over the next ten years based upon a projected reduction of 9.4 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.

The project delivers significant benefits to the rainforest by protecting carbon stored in the forest's living biomass, by protecting the biodiversity and local communities that depend on the forest's ecosystem, and by generating an alternative income source for CIKEL via the sale of VCUs (Verified Carbon Units).

Emission reductions are ensured by the VCS to be real, measurable, additional, permanent, independently verified and conservatively estimated. The VCS uniquely numbers and registers VCUs in a central database where they are issued, held, transferred and retired, guaranteeing transparency.

The VCS is the most commonly used standard for carbon accounting among projects that issue credits in the voluntary markets.

 

Image source: http://skywatch-media.com/2007/12/more-than-half-of-amazon-will-be-lost.html