Scale

International Law (UNFCCC)

REDD+ under the UNFCCC

National level, although subnational is recognised as an interim measure towards national implementation.

Social and Environmental Standards

SocialCarbon

Similar to scope, SocialCarbon has been designed as a complementary (add-on) standard for co-benefits of any GHG mitigation project and has no criteria regarding project size, making it also applicable to larger scale jurisdictional programmes.

Climate, Community, & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards

CCB Standards are applicable at the project level. The Standards also enable the use of programmatic approaches that allow the expansion of project activities to new land areas subsequent to project validation. This is included to help reduce transaction costs, especially for smallholder-led projects which are likely to start small and grow over time.

Donor Financed Initiatives

Germany's REDD+ Early Movers Programme

The REDD Early Movers programme intends to support emission reduction efforts undertaken at a national, sub-national or biome level, following a jurisdictional approach. Eligibility criteria require sub-national or biome approaches to be coherently integrated and aligned with national strategies and policy goals related to emission reductions and avoidance of deforestation. Project-level initiatives are not supported. 

Forest Carbon Partnership Facility’s Carbon Fund

The Carbon Fund supports national or subnational ER Programs. Such programs must be “ambitious, demonstrating the potential of the full implementation of the variety of interventions of the national REDD+ strategy, and […] implemented at jurisdictional scale or programmatic scale”. The ER Program must contain ER Program Measures (i.e. policies, measures, or projects) that aim to address a significant portion of forest-related emissions and removals. The ER Program accounting area must be of significant scale and align with one or more jurisdiction or a national-government-designated area (e.g. eco-region) or areas. A programmatic approach is defined as involving multiple land areas, landowners or managers within one or several jurisdictions.

Developing Country Programmes

Voluntary Carbon Standards

The Gold Standard Land Use and Forests Framework

Project-level. The Gold Standard Land Use and Forests Framework has been developed to address sustainability at the landscape level. In practice this means that once the rules and requirements have been developed for the full set of supported forest and land use activities (A/R, Agr. and IFM) then multiple activities can be certified across a designated landscape under one project.

Plan Vivo Standard

Project-level. The standard is targeted towards small-scale projects. However the standard follows a ‘landscape approach’ according to which projects can be scaled up over time to include more participant communities and larger areas.

Natural Forest Standard

Project-level. The Natural Forest Standard is aimed at medium to large scale projects, with a proposed minimum project area of 20,000 hectares.  

Developed Country Programmes