ACR Improved Forest Management Methodology Earns Core Carbon Principle (CCP) Approval from the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM)

ACR credits issued to projects under Version 2.1 of the methodology now eligible for CCP-Approved Label.

ACR’s Improved Forest Management (IFM) on Non-Federal U.S. Forestlands methodology has earned Core Carbon Principles (CCP) approval from the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) in the latest round of methodology assessments. Carbon credits issued to projects under Version 2.1 of the methodology are eligible for CCP-Approved status.

The CCP label is active in the ACR Registry. While ACR has not yet issued credits to projects under IFM version 2.1, there are 18 projects listed under this version, covering nearly 500,000 acres of forestland. Earlier versions of ACR’s Improved Forest Management methodology are still under assessment. 

While ACR views this as an important step forward, we will continue to engage with ICVCM throughout their assessment process with the intent of securing CCP-Approved labels across our portfolio of active methodologies, which includes emission reductions and removals from nature-based and industrial solutions.

ICVCM approved ACR at the program level as “Core Carbon Principles (CCP) Eligible” in April 2024. To become approved, ACR submitted an extensive application to ICVCM for assessment. We provided evidence of being a CORSIA Eligible Emissions Unit Program, in addition to meeting the CCP’s criteria around effective governance, credit tracking, transparency, and robust, independent third-party validation and verification. 

Since its founding in 1996 as the world’s first private greenhouse gas registry, ACR has innovated and operationalized key elements of carbon credit quality assurance, including scientific peer-reviewed accounting methodologies and well-accepted approaches to address additionality, leakage, and reversal risk mitigation; oversight of independent third-party verification; and operation of a transparent registry for the issuance and tracking of serialized credits.

ACR’s approach to program quality has earned approval to issue credits for use in regulated carbon markets, including the State of California’s Cap-and-Trade Program, the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), the State of Washington’s Cap-and-Invest Program, and towards compliance with Singapore’s Carbon Pricing Act. 

Alongside ACR’s approval in global compliance markets, we expect the ICVCM’s CCP label to provide further confidence to buyers in credit quality and allow finance to flow to impactful climate solutions to support the goals of the Paris Agreement. The urgency of climate change demands nothing less.

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ACR is an internationally recognized carbon crediting program that operates in global compliance and voluntary carbon markets. A nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, ACR was founded in 1996 as the first private greenhouse gas (GHG) registry in the world with the mission of harnessing the power of markets to improve the environment. Learn more at ACRclimate.org.