Since its inception, Biomas has worked to offer high-integrity carbon credits. But, what does this concept really mean?
High integrity is the result of how a project is conceived, implemented, and monitored to create real outcomes for the climate, biodiversity, and people.
It isn’t defined at the moment the carbon credits are issued, but rather through an understanding of the territory, technical design, risk management, community relations, and a commitment to monitoring the forest’s development over decades.
As Marcela Pyles, our Science and Carbon Projects Manager explains, “before talking about issuance, we look at what needs to be restored, protected, understood, and strengthened. The credit is the outcome of a project with integrity.
Restoring with integrity requires an integrated perspective
Marcela highlights that “integrity stems from a broad, in-depth view of the territory and the relationships between the forest, water, soil, communities, production, and governance.”
This integrated perspective helps ensure that the restored forest not only develops over time, but is also connected to a landscape capable of sustaining its long-term survival. Therefore, a high-integrity project combines scientific knowledge, long term planning, monitoring, risk management, and dialogue with local communities.
At Biomas projects, concepts such as additionality, measurements, permanence, transparency, socioenvironmental benefits, and independent verification are essential; they are part of a unified framework designed to ensure that restoration delivers real results.
Permanence is not a promise, it is risk management over time
A key foundation of high integrity is the permanence of the restored forest, in other words, creating conditions for it to continue existing and sequestering carbon over the years.
To achieve this, before implementation, we assess natural, climate, financial, land tenure, operational, and external risks. Based on this analysis we define mitigation measures, monitoring strategies, responsibilities, adaptive management plans, and, when applicable, contractual protection mechanisms.
Marcela emphasizes that this level of care is essential because a growing forest is subject to various threats. Forest fires, extreme weather events, changes in surrounding land use, monitoring failures, or economic pressures can compromise results if they’re not anticipated and monitored.
Faced with circumstances that could affect the longevity, the project must have alternative pathways in place to prevent its permanence from being compromised.
The difference between longevity and the crediting period helps explain high integrity
In carbon projects linked to restoration, there’s an important difference between the crediting period and longevity. Conceptually, the crediting period is a timeframe where forest growth generates net carbon removals and, therefore, can yield credits. “However, high integrity lies in guaranteeing the forest’s permanence beyond this period,” Marcela says.
This distinction explains why long term commitment is so important. A project’s quality isn't only based on what it can generate while the forest is growing. It is also reflected in the ability to store carbon and in the benefits associated with the restored forests in the decades that follow.
A practical example is Project Muçununga, which is restoring more than 1,200 hectares of Atlantic Forest in southern Bahia: the crediting period is 40 years long, yet our commitment to its longevity spans 100 years. The project is carried out by Biomas and Carbon2Nature Brasil in partnership with Veracel, with support from the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) through The Climate Fund.
High-integrity projects must demonstrate that their benefits are real
Another essential principle is additionality. In simple terms, a project is additional when it demonstrates that carbon removals wouldn’t have occurred in the same way had the carbon project not existed.
According to Marcela, “the additionality must be actually demonstrated and not just presumed.” It needs to be established based on reliable methodology, analysis of the territory, and financial, operational, technical, and regulatory barriers, as well as the data from the implementation.
The same logic applies to quantifying the removed carbon. The project must measure the results in a robust and verifiable manner. The goal isn’t to maximize the amount of tradable credits, but to ensure that each credit represents one tonne of CO₂ equivalent that was removed in a real and measurable way.
At Biomas, this quantification combines field measurements, remote sensing, conservative parameters, and uncertainty management. The restoration process is monitored and its progress is carefully documented so that the data reflects what is happening on the ground.
Integrity also means avoiding indirect impacts and generating concrete benefits
High-integrity projects also need to assess if restoring an area can trigger indirect impacts elsewhere. One example is the risk of displacing a productive activity to another region, thereby creating new pressures for the deforestation of the native vegetation.
To mitigate this risk, in the early phases of the project, we evaluate the area’s land use and production history, the baseline scenarios, and the possibility of emission increases outside of the project area. “The goal is to guarantee that the climate benefits won’t be negated because of impacts in other areas,” says Marcela.
However, integrity goes beyond simply avoiding harm.. Restoration must also create measurable benefits for people and biodiversity. This involves social and environmental diagnoses, community engagement, risk evaluation, action plans, monitoring, and measures focused on landscape connectivity, ecosystem services, and land resilience.
This relationship is strategic and, at the same time, part of the project’s essence, since the forest’s permanence also depends on building relationships, trust, and concrete benefits within the territory. It is, therefore, “impossible to think of a restoration project without considering the impact of the people on the forest and of the forest on the people,” says Marcela.
Certification transforms field results into reliable credits
Once a project is designed, implemented, and monitored, the results need to be evaluated by independent auditors, and that is when the validation, verification, and emission phases begin.
As Marcela explains, the certification guarantees that the project was conceived and developed in accordance with market methodological rules. “It guides the design, monitoring, transparency in credit generation, and process traceability,” she states.
The validation and verification stages are part of the certification process. While the first stage evaluates whether a project was planned in accordance with the rules, the second stage evaluates whether what was implemented corresponds to what was validated to generate real results.
At predetermined moments, the data on biomass measurements, social indicators, and biodiversity metrics are analyzed and, afterwards, sent to the certifying body, which then decides on credit issuance.
High-integrity credits result from rigorously executed projects
When a restoration project is rigorously structured, consistently implemented, monitored over time, and independently audited, the resulting credits generated reflect that quality.
High-integrity credits aren’t just a commercial attribute. They are the outcome of a project that has demonstrated additionality, permanence, reliable metrics, transparency, traceability, and socioenvironmental benefits.
For Marcela, the integrity is in the project overall, and not just in the credits. “To create high-integrity credits, the project needs to be carried out based on these principles,” she explains.
This approach strengthens trust in the carbon market. In a sector that is still maturing and subject to regulatory, political, and economic changes, well-designed projects help raise quality standards and reduce risks.
The high integrity raises the bar for restoration in Brazil
When working on high-integrity projects, we help strengthen the carbon market, raise quality standards, and showcase Brazilian excellence in this field.
Large-scale ecological restoration plays an important role in addressing climate, social, and biodiversity crises. To achieve this potential, it must be carried out with responsibility, grounded in science, and backed by long term commitment.
In our business, high integrity shouldn’t be viewed solely as a label given at the end of a project. It is an approach to restoration that begins on the ground, involves the entire field operation, and only then translates into credits capable of taking the quality of the original project to the market.