Thirty percent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from deforestation and inappropriate agricultural practices. Natural climate solutions – also known as Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) – provide a way to reduce and eliminate all greenhouse gas emissions.

Verra’s VCS program is a leader in developing methodologies and other tools to fully exploit the carbon reduction potential of AFOLU projects. The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) is currently the most widely used standard in the sector.

AFOLU projects fall into the following main categories:

• Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation (ARR)
• Agricultural Land Management (ALM)
• Improved Forest Management (IFM)
• Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)
• Avoided Conversion of Grasslands and Shrublands (ACoGS)
• Wetland Restoration and Conservation (WRC – Wetland Restoration and Conservation)

One of the biggest challenges for AFOLU projects is managing risks appropriately, which include natural factors (e.g. fires, pests, hurricanes, environmental change), internal management factors (e.g. project management, financial viability of projects), and external factors (e.g. community engagement and collaboration, land tenure issues). To ensure the environmental integrity of the VCUs (Verified Carbon Units) issued under AFOLU projects, Verra manages a pooled reserve account (insurance reserve).

Each AFOLU project is required to contribute a share of its emissions reductions or removals of CO₂ from the atmosphere to this reserve fund. This is a percentage adjusted for the risk of the project. In the event of unforeseen events that cause carbon loss in some of the projects, the losses are compensated through reserve credits from this common reserve fund. Carbon credits in an equivalent volume of carbon losses are then withdrawn (cancelled) from the reserve fund, thereby guaranteeing the long-term integrity of the certified AFOLU projects. Spring