8. Project Requirements
8.1. General Requirements
Projects shall meet all applicable rules and requirements outlined in the Regen Registry Program Guide.
Projects shall only apply Protocol/Methodology approved by into the Regen Registry. Credit Classes and Methodologies shall be applied in full and adhere to any applicable rules and requirements. The full list of approved Protocol/Methodologies can be found in the Regen Registry Handbook.
Projects shall apply the latest version of the applicable Protocol/Methodology.
8.2. Land Tenure
Land tenure is a legal term representing rights and interests in project lands.
The Project Proponent shall own, have control over, or document effective control over the GHG sources/sinks from which the removals originate.
The Project Proponent shall provide documentation and/or attestation of land tenure.
In the case of leased land, the landowner shall agree to all contractual obligations taken by the Project Proponent, and the Project Proponent shall provide documentation and/or attestation of title agreement to credits.
The Registry Agent may require a legal review by an expert in local law.
8.3. Project Area
The Project Area may only include land meeting the following requirements:
The land was not converted from forest land, wetlands or any other natural ecosystem in the ten-year period prior to the Project’s Start Date.
The Project Area may include portions of land which are not eligible land, only if they are excluded from any GHG or co-benefit estimation. Those areas will be clearly demarcated in the Project Plan.
8.4. Project Boundary
The Project Boundary shall be described in the Project Plan, including any GHG sinks, sources, and reservoirs, or other ecological indicators.
8.5. Project Ownership
The Project Proponent shall stipulate the ownership of credits issued to the project in the Project Plan. Regen Registry supports fractional ownership of the credits allocated to a project in a given issuance event, therefore credits can be split between Land/Earth Stewards, Land Owners, Project Developers, and Buyers.
8.6. Project Start Date
Each Credit Class must specify the Project Start Date requirements.
The Project Proponent shall stipulate the Project Start Date and justify how it meets the eligibility requirements outlined in the Protocol/Methodology.
If a Project Start Date precedes project registration, the Project Proponent must justify how the project has met the eligibility and data requirements outlined in the Protocol/Methodology prior to project registration
8.7. Project Crediting Period
Each Protocol/Methodology must specify the Crediting Period projects in that Protocol/Methodology are eligible to receive Credits.
Project Proponents shall stipulate the Crediting Period in the Project Plan.
8.8. Regulatory Compliance
Projects must maintain material regulatory compliance, that is, adherent to all laws, regulations, and other legally binding mandates directly related to Project Activities.
Project Proponent is required to provide a regulatory compliance attestation for the project(s) in the Project Plan. This attestation must disclose all relevant laws, regulations, or other legally binding mandates directly related to Project Activities and indicate (if applicable) where Project Activities violate compliance.
Project Proponents are required to disclose on an ongoing basis any potential or imminent or actual violations of laws, regulations, or other legally binding mandates related to Project Activities.
The Registry Agent retains discretion to decide on a case-by-case basis whether a violation requires canceling the project or putting it on hold until the issue is addressed.
8.9. Registration on other Registries
Project Proponents are required to state if they plan to apply in the future, or have applied for and been listed, registered, and/or been issued GHG emission reduction or removal credits, biodiversity credits or any other ecological credit through any other GHG emissions program, biodiversity program or any other certification program.
Project Proponent will include detailed information on any credit issuance (volume, vintage, status), and information on any rejections of the project application on other registries.
Regen Registry will review the information provided by Project Proponent and approve or reject concurrent registration with another registry(s). Regen Registry will permit concurrent project registration only if the following conditions are met:
No double issuance - credits issued for the same unique emissions reductions (project boundary and vintage) do not reside concurrently on more than one registry.
No double sale - once any credits have been sold on another registry, the Project Proponent will be required to cancel that project in order to register on the Regen Registry.
8.10. Aggregate Projects
Project Proponents may be able to create efficiencies around reporting and verification by strategically combining a group of project areas participating in an Aggregate Project. To that end, project areas should be grouped so their defining characteristics are as homogeneous as possible. Verifiers may select randomly which project areas will receive on-site visits, or apply a risk analysis to identify project areas with the strongest influence over an Aggregate Project’s outcomes. Verifiers can use their own discretion to determine the data sampling approach, yet all sites require at least a desk-based review.
Sites must be located in the same pre-defined climatic or geographic region and share similar soil, phytophysiognomy, and other ecological characteristics, and share the same land-management practice. Project Proponents must justify registration of aggregated projects in the Project Plan.
8.11. Safeguards
Project Activities must not negatively affect the environment or local communities. The Project Proponent must identify and address any negative environmental and socio-economic impacts of Project Activities and engage with local stakeholders to mitigate them.
Safeguard conditions hold, not only during project registration but throughout the lifetime of the project. That is, Project Proponents with an existing project on Regen Registry shall follow the same procedure above if planning to register on another registry concurrently.
8.11.1. No Net Harm
The Project Proponent shall detail any potential negative socio-economic and environmental impacts of the project and the steps taken to mitigate them. This includes risks of project implementation to local stakeholders, how risks are mitigated and plans to protect local stakeholder property rights. This also includes detailing the process for conflict resolution between Project Proponent and local stakeholders, such as grievance redress.
8.11.2. Local Stakeholder Consultation
The Project Proponent shall indicate how local stakeholders were identified and consulted prior to the project implementation.
8.11.3. Environmental Impact
The Project Proponent must indicate if environmental impact assessments were undertaken and describe the process and findings.
8.11.4. Public Comment
The Project Proponent shall specify if a community public consultation was undertaken prior to the project implementation and detail how comments were addressed, either in updates to the project or justified as irrelevant.
8.12. Project Plan Deviations
Deviations from the Credit Class or Approved Methodology are permitted where they do not negatively affect the conservativeness of the Protocol/Methodology approach to the quantification of GHG emissions reductions and removal enhancements, or other ecological benefits, and do not affect the Safeguards specified in Section 6.10.
Project Proponents submitting Project Plan deviations must provide evidence that the proposed deviation meets the conservativeness standards of the Protocol/Methodology.
The Registry Agent will permit project-specific deviations from the Protocol/Methodology where they do not negatively affect the conservativeness of an Protocol/Methodology approach to the quantification of GHG emissions reductions and removal enhancements.
The Registry Agent will review deviation requests, and if approved, deviations can be applied to a specific project, but are not published as modifications to the Protocol/Methodology. Any approved deviations must be communicated to the Credit Protocol Admin, and may be overridden by the Credit Protocol Admin.
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