Ecological Recovery

PRINCIPLES

  1. Ecosystem Restoration 

    1. The Project must strive to restore ecosystem composition, functionality, and adaptivity in line with a Reference Ecosystem.
    2. The Developer must identify a Reference Site to conduct the Ecological Recovery Assessment and inform the Restoration Plan.
      1. The Developer must use multiple sources of information to select the Reference Site, including consultation with local stakeholders, archives, sites with different recovery levels, literature, and any relevant source. 
      2. The Reference Site must be physically accessible by the Developer throughout the crediting period. 

  2. Restoration Interventions

    1. The Project must engage an ecologist, naturalist, or biologist, and someone holding Traditional or Local Ecological Knowledge of the ecosystem. 
    2. The Developer should adopt practices that maximise ecological outcomes, across the continuum of intervention types.
    3. The Developer must design a mitigation plan for existing threats to increase the success rate of restoration efforts.
    4. The Developer must strive to minimise the environmental impacts of restoration activities, including site preparation. More precisely, the Developer must not: 
      1. Use fire for soil preparation; 
      2. Invert the soil to a depth greater than twenty-five cm; 
      3. Use nitrogen fertilisers.
    5. The Project must not harvest timber for commercial purposes. 

  3. Genetic Diversity

    1. The Project must strive to retain and augment genetically diverse populations.
      1. The Project must strive to select seeds and plant materials that are genetically diverse and generated within or in the vicinity of the Project Area to ensure the conservation of locally adapted traits.
      2. The Project should source from a nursery which breeds rare, endemic, and endangered flora species.
      3. The Project should maintain sufficient seed resources for reproduction, animal consumption, and provisioning for NTFPs, if applicable. 

  4. Species Diversity 

    1. The Project must include a mix of native species, favouring endemic and threatened ones when possible.
      1. The Project must select species according to the state of degradation of the Restoration Site(s).
      2. The Project must consider succession dynamics and population dynamics.
      3. The Project must strive to favour mutualistic interactions between species.
    2. The Project must exclude exotic species as part of the Restoration Plan. 
      1. Exceptions can be made for non-invasive species that are historically exotic or non-native but considered part of the ecosystem, or perform ecosystem functions that support long-term restoration efforts.
          • When non-native species are used in restoration activities, the Developer must provide peer-reviewed scientific literature corroborating its use.
      2. Exceptions can be made for non-invasive exotic species which provide structural elements that favour restoration activities in the early stages of a Project (e.g., fast-growing species that regenerate the soil or provide shade for other species). 
          • In this case, the exotic species must be removed within the first ten (10) years.
    3. The Developer should have a plan to protect and/or reintroduce threatened, vulnerable, and endangered species of relevant functional groups that are endemic or native to the area.
      1. If the Project aims to actively re-introduce animal species, it should ensure the long-term viability of this approach, demonstrating the projected impact on the ecosystem’s trophic system.

  5. Habitat Provision and Protection

    1. The Project must strive to increase and improve available habitat for native species (i.e., maintaining deadwood in the forest to benefit insects and fungi, providing habitat for birds, etc.).
    2. Whenever possible, Developers should strive to protect the Project Area by officially registering it as a protected site under a nationally and/or internationally recognised status to ensure legal, long-term conservation.

  6. Connectivity and Buffer Zones

    1. The Project should favour the creation of biological corridors within and beyond the Project Area to increase connectivity between ecosystems and contribute to species dispersal, migration and movement.
    2. The Project must strive to identify and remove, or mitigate, the impact of human-made barriers to ecological connectivity.
      1. If the barrier is considered “linear” (e.g. roads, fences), the Project must strive to remove it or create corridors to connect the patches.
      2. If the barrier spans large areas (e.g., agricultural fields, urban areas), the Project should strive to create one or more corridors to connect the patches.
    3. If the Project borders ecosystems undergoing disturbances, Developers should consider the creation of buffer zones in as many areas as logistically and socially possible around the Restoration Sites. 
      1. The width of the buffer zone should be sized to enable the ecosystem and restoration goals. 
      2. The Developer should make the buffer zone as continuous as possible to avoid fragmented buffer patches

  7. Ecosystem Services

    1. The Project must strive to restore and/or maintain soil health, including soil fertility, soil biodiversity, nutrient cycling and preventing soil erosion.
    2. Where applicable, the Project must strive to:
      1. Protect and restore freshwater sources within and around the Project Area.
      2. Maintain the natural purification and filtration functions of the ecosystem.
      3. Mitigate the impacts of future extreme weather events.
      4. Enhance and restore the capacity of the ecosystem to regulate water flow, reducing the risk of future flood events by restoring watersheds, floodplains, and water cycles.
    3. Where applicable, the Project should:
      1. Restore other provisioning services, such as non-timber forest products (NTFPs) that IPLCs receive from the forests. 
      2. Promote the reproductive viability of restored forest ecosystems, such as the availability of resources for natural pollination, seed dispersal and gene flow within and across taxonomic groups. 
      3. Protect and restore the ecosystem's cultural and recreational values, and well-being benefits. 

  8. Threats and Degradation Drivers

    1. The Developer must identify the threats to the ecosystem and determine what has caused degradation in the past. 
    2. The Developer must strive to remove degradation drivers affecting the Project Area, such as browsing, overgrazing, illegal or unsustainable harvesting or hunting practices, nutrients and chemical runoffs, and invasive species.
    3. The Developer must strive to eliminate emergent and recurring barriers to regeneration and forest regrowth, such as but not limited to invasive species, grazing, fire, soil erosion, flooding, pests, disease and smothering. 
      1. If invasive species and/or other aggressive woody and non-woody vegetation are present and interfere with natural forest recovery, they must be removed before the Project begins to lay the ground for restoration. 
      2. The Developer must detail plans for the proper disposal of removed invasive floral species, focusing on minimising carbon emissions linked to their disposal.

💡 In this version of the Methodology, ERS will not factor the removals resulting from eliminating invasive species in carbon calculations.


  1. Adaptation & Resilience

    1. Developers should strive to select species considering the long-term context of a changing climate and its future effects on landscapes and ecosystems.

💡 ERS acknowledges that this practice is not trivial and recommends the Developer to look for science-based recommendations to support the selection of plant species and varieties.


METHODS

  1. Reference Ecosystem 

    1. The choice of the Reference Site must be determined following the Reference Ecosystem Guidelines and inputs from the Feasibility Interviews. 

    2. In the case of landscape scale Projects encompassing multiple biomes and/or ecosystems, one Reference site must be selected per biome and/or ecosystem type. 

      Baseline Assessment. The baseline assessment must include: 

    3. The Project Zonation, following the Zonation Guidelines. 
    4. Field Assessments using the ERS App, following the Field Assessment Guidelines.
    5. Summary of Key Findings, Objectives and Interventions in the Ecological Recovery Assessment Tool.
    6. Inputs from Community Consultations informed in the Ecological Recovery Assessment Tool following the Community Consultation Guidelines, if IPLCs are among the Stakeholders.
    7. Projects that have performed Pre-submission Activities must:
      1. Indicate the Pre-submission Activities zones in the Project Zonation during the Project Feasibility Review phase.
      2. Fill out the Detailed Activities and the Planted Species sections of the Pre-submission Activities Report.

      3. Perform the Baseline Assessment for Ecological Recovery during the Project Design Review phase of the certification process on all restoration sites. 

        Restoration Plan 

    8. The Restoration Plan must: 
      1. Be informed by the Ecological Recovery Assessment Tool and the Pre-submission Activities Report, if applicable. 
      2. Include measurable ecosystem and biodiversity objectives, interventions and indicators to assess ecological additionality. When relevant, interventions must be linked to SDG indicators.
      3. Include proposed practices for increasing landscape connectivity.
      4. Detail the envisaged restoration practices. 
      5. Detail the level of human intervention required for the proposed restoration activities.
    9. The Project’s appointed ecologist or related professional must sign the final version of the Restoration Plan. 

  2. Measurement and Reporting

Refer to the MRV Procedures section for more details.

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