Verra Completes Review of BigCoast Forest Climate Initiative

Verra, the organization that administers the Verified Carbon Standard, has concluded its review of the BigCoast Forest Climate Initiative and found that two technical issues resulted in excess issuance of Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) by the project. 

 Mosaic Forest Management, the manager for BigCoast Forest, became aware of the technical issues as part of a routine verification audit in 2024. These issues relate to a software script used to calculate avoided emissions and a calculation of the project uncertainty factor. 

 Mosaic notified Verra and requested a project review under Section 6 of Verra’s Registration and Issuance Process. During this time, Mosaic also suspended sales of BigCoast Forest VCUs. 

 Verra’s review confirmed the audit findings and determined that, as a result of the technical issues, BigCoast Forest generated an excess issuance of approximately 670,000 VCUs. Most of the excess VCUs were not sold to customers and have been removed from the Verra Registry in accordance with Verra’s process. For the balance of the excess issuance, Mosaic will be purchasing equivalent quality VCUs, which will also be removed from the registry by Verra.

 “Voluntary Carbon Markets have undergone significant change since BigCoast Forest was initially released and we are taking this opportunity to align the project design to the latest best practices and standards,” said Duncan Davies, Mosaic’s President & CEO. “Until this work is completed, sales of BigCoast Forest VCUs will remain on hold.” 

 BigCoast credits previously purchased by customers remain valid, and the areas within BigCoast Forest will continue to be managed per the original commitments of the project.

 For more information on the review, refer to the Verra Registry website.