17 June 2010 M-Agg Washington, DC

1. VCS Agricultural Land Management 17 June 2010 M-Agg Washington, DC

2. The Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) • Established by leading NGOs (IETA, WBCSD, The Climate Group, WEF) to: • Provide a rigorous, trustworthy and innovative global standard and validation and verification program for GHG offsets • Managed by the VCS Association • Non-profit headquartered in Washington, DC • Single focus – to develop and manage the platform (i.e., no consulting, no meth development, no validation/verification, no project development) • Funded through VCU levy and foundation grants • AFOLU Steering Committee largely credited with bringing in land-based activities into the carbon market

3. VCS AFOLU • Project types • Agricultural Land Management (ALM) • Improved Cropland Management • Improved Grassland Management • Cropland and Grassland Land-use Conversions • Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation (ARR) • Improved Forest Management (IFM) • Reduced Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation (REDD) • Key components • Permanence: Risk Assessment and AFOLU Pooled Buffer Account • Leakage: Activity shifting and market leakage must be minimized and accounted for • Optionality for demonstrating social/biodiversity benefits

4. The VCS Infrastructure Oversight VCS Program Gap Analysis Registries VCS Program Temporary Accreditation Process Double Approval Process

5. Double Approval Process • Double Approval Process for new methodologies • Bottom-up process to foster innovation within a context of quality, credibility and transparency • Requires: • Public comment period (30 days) • Assessment by 2 validators with agreement on the final version of the methodology • AFOLU methodologies require at least one validator to have a VCS-approved AFOLU Expert in the project type (e.g. ALM) • At least one validator must have completed 10 validations • Currently undergoing the double approval process: • 19 methodologies including 12 AFOLU methodologies (2 ALM, 1 ARR, 5 REDD, 4 IFM)

6. Double Approval Process

7. ALM Methodologies • Current ALM methodologies: • Quantifying GHG Emission Reductions from the Production and Incorporation of Soil of Biochar in Agricultural and Forest Management Systems • Developed by Carbon Gold • Applies to projects that increase the carbon stocks in soils by treating crop residues or other biomass produced as part of agricultural activities or forest management through controlled pyrolysis • Status: 1st Assessment

8. ALM Methodologies • Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Land Management (SALM) • Developed by World Bank BioCarbon Fund • Applies to projects that reduce emissions or increase soil c stocks in agriculture by applying sustainable land management practices (SALM) • Uses input parameters to existing analytic models (RothC or Century) for estimation of organic soil C density at equilibrium in each of the identified management practices in each of the land use categories • Based on the "Western Kenya Smallholder Agriculture Carbon Finance Project” • Status: 1st Assessment

9. Developments • Further guidance on: • Measurement and modelling • Model calibration • Quantification of uncertainty • New project types • Avoided conversion of grasslands, shrublands, wetlands • New Methodologies: • Additional ALM methodologies in pipeline • New methodology template • Compensation mechanism for new methodologies • Incentivize methodologies with broader scope • Help developers recover some of the cost

10. Thank you Naomi Swickard AFOLU Program Coordinator Voluntary Carbon Standard Association 1730 Rhode Island Avenue, NW Suite 803 Washington, DC 20036 Tel: +1 202 296 2460 nswickard@v-c-s.org www.v-c-s.org