Revision of the Khasi Hills Plan Vivo Technical Specification, India

The Khasi Hills Community REDD+ Project (KHCRP), located in the remote northeast state of Meghalaya, India has been running since 2011 to prevent and reverse deforestation of community forests. The two land-use interventions employed are forest protection (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, or “REDD”) and restoration (Assisted Natural Regeneration, or “ANR”). Certified under the Plan Vivo standard, the project has been issued with certificates for 290,518 tCO2e, finance from which contributes to the conservation and regeneration of the 15,217 hectares of forest and livelihoods of 62 communities.

Since validation of the KHCRP in 2012, the Plan Vivo standard has undergone revisions to reflect changes in the Voluntary Carbon Market, and ensure that the Standard remains relevant to projects, certificate buyers and other stakeholders. These include revisions to the approved approaches used to estimate climate benefits.

TLLG are currently supporting KHCRP to revise their Plan Vivo technical specification. This includes revising the methodology used for calculating carbon benefits of the project’s land use interventions to comply with the latest version of the Plan Vivo Standard and establishing a new baseline scenario for the project’s next implementation period (2020 to 2030). Using the outputs from this baseline, TLLG and KHCRP will ascertain the climate benefits of the project’s two core land use interventions (REDD and ANR) to help focus the forthcoming implementation phase.

Open Woodland within the KHCRP site, DRC. © Khasi Hills Community REDD+ Project

Client: Khasi Hills Ecosystem Private Ltd.

Duration: June 2020 - December 2020