The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) announced on 17 July 2025 the conditional approval of ACR’s Afforestation and Reforestation of Degraded Lands (ARR) methodology under its Core Carbon Principles (CCPs). This represents the second Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation (ARR) methodology to achieve CCP-Approved status.
The approval is specifically limited to projects focused on natural forest establishment and restoration, as the ICVCM assessment concluded that the methodology meets the CCP’s additionality requirements only within this defined scope. ACR has confirmed that the CCP label will be applied to projects verified as conforming, which plant native species on degraded lands to sequester carbon, deliver broad environmental co-benefits, and avoid potential negative impacts. The conditional approval applies to versions 1.0 through 1.2 of the ACR ARR methodology.
The ICVCM noted the following in their Board Observation:
Robust Quantification
The ACR Afforestation & Reforestation of Degraded Lands methodology incorporates multiple approaches for estimating carbon stocks and conducting field measurements, allowing project developers to select methods and assumptions that ensure accurate and conservative estimates of net GHG removals. Version 1.2 emphasizes the importance of addressing uncertainty, with a methodological preference for conservative assumptions to minimize the risk of overestimation. While the use of a global default value for the carbon fraction is permitted, project-specific data is strongly encouraged where available. These methodological decisions are subject to oversight by ACR and third-party validation and verification bodies (VVBs) to ensure integrity and consistency.
Assessment of Additionality
The ICVCM assessment confirmed that projects focused on natural forest establishment and restoration on degraded lands under the ACR ARR methodology satisfy the additionality requirements of the Assessment Framework. While the assessment identified risks related to the additionality of large-scale commercial ARR projects, particularly those involving monocultures or non-native species, and reliance on outdated CDM tools, these risks were not found to apply to natural forest-based activities.
The ICVCM has encouraged CCP-Eligible Programs that utilize legacy CDM additionality tools to review and revise their methodologies to align with current framework standards. All updates must be submitted for reassessment, and the ICVCM will continue to monitor developments under the Paris Agreement’s Article 6.4 mechanism.
Following this decision, ACR-issued credits under qualifying projects are now eligible to receive the CCP-Approved label. To date, 7,792,791 credits have been issued, of which 4,065,624 credits have been retired, leaving a current available supply of approximately 3.7 million credits. These CCP-Approved credits have attracted premium market pricing, with recent transactions reported at USD 30.50.
Five additional ARR methodologies are currently under assessment by the ICVCM, with decisions expected in the coming months.
Please reach out if you would like to discuss this development and the impact of CCP credits.