Systems & Procedures

Procedures within the Plan Vivo System are designed to ensure that carbon offsets are verifiable, that activities help promote sustainable development and that participation by producers is voluntary. These procedures are divided into the following main areas:

1. selecting target groups
2. annual planning cycle
3. carbon accounting
4. systems review

It is recognised that social and environmental conditions and legal requirement differ from country to country and it is recommended that each Plan Vivo project adjusts these procedures to suit local circumstances using the information and templates provided in these pages as guidance.

Projects should set out their systems in a project operational manual. This will be a key requirement for verification. Procedures should not be set in stone and may be modified as experience is gained, however the operational manual should be a controlled document; the procedures through which the manual can be modified should be stated and the date of any revision recorded.

See an example of an operational manual from the Scolel Té project.