🌲Gold Standard Afforestation and Reforestation (AR) v2.0

Policy developed by Envision Blockchain

• Policy Description

• Workflow Description

• Policy Guide

For more Gold Standard Afforestation and Reforestation (AR) policy information, please visit the Envision Blockchain-contributed open-source Guardian policy page here

Policy Description:

The Gold Standard Afforestation and Reforestation (AR) methodology is a set of guidelines and procedures developed by The Gold Standard Foundation for quantifying and verifying greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions resulting from afforestation and reforestation projects. The methodology provides a standardized framework for calculating the carbon sequestration potential of these types of projects, taking into account removals from both aboveground and belowground tree biomass, and also quantifies emissions from biomass burning for site preparation and the use of nitrogen fertilizer.

The AR methodology sets out requirements for project design, implementation, and monitoring. It outlines the steps necessary to establish a baseline for GHG emissions and carbon sequestration potential, and to assess the project's impact on local biodiversity. The methodology also includes provisions for addressing potential leakage and permanence risks, which can impact the long-term effectiveness of the project in sequestering carbon.

The Gold Standard AR methodology promotes sustainable land use practices that contribute to mitigating climate change while supporting the conservation of biodiversity. By providing a standardized framework for evaluating and verifying the carbon sequestration potential of afforestation and reforestation projects, the methodology helps to incentivize the adoption of more sustainable land use practices around the world.

Workflow Description:

Policy Guide

Typically, the way we start the demonstration is by logging in as a Standard Registry.

Create a Standard Registry user if you haven't done so already.

You'll now be prompted to configure your Standard Registry account. Go through the user profile setup screen. At the last step of the user profile screen, Standard Registry users will need to fill out the Standard Registry attribute form (see screenshot below). Press Connect when finished. This will now initialize the Guardian instance on the correct Hedera Consensus Service Topics, create a DID document, create a Verifiable Credential, etc.

Now we will be creating the Policy. Click on the "Policies" tab and select "Policies." We have three ways to create policies.

The first way is to actually create the policy from scratch. The second way is to import a policy. The third way is to import a policy through our pre-loaded policies from the Guardian's open source methodology library. Importing a policy will import all schemas, tokens, and policy workflow blocks to automatically populate.

For this demo guide, we will use the "Import from Open Source" way. Click on that button and find the policy for this guide and click on the import button.

Once the policy is imported successfully, you get two options: Publish and Dry Run mode. We select the Dry Run option and select Go.

Create additional users by clicking the “Create User” button.

Once the users have been created go to each one and assign the appropriate role (i.e. Project Proponent, VVB, Technical Advisory Committee and NGO Supporters).

Go to the Standard Registry profile and approve the VVB in the “Approve VVB” tab.

9. Click on the Project Proponent profile and select “New Project”.

Now, we can input all the project details and data associated with the project in the “New Project” form. In the schema Excel file, if the final CRU calculations do not result in a positive integer, selecting "Ok" after completing the form will trigger errors. In this demo guide, we have provided a link to an Excel file containing demo values that can be utilized to test the policy.

To proceed with the flow, the next step is to access the Standard Registry profile and include the project in the project pipeline. This can be achieved by navigating to the "Project Pipeline" tab and selecting the "Add" option.

Next, proceed to the Project Proponent profile and locate the "Projects" section. Then, click on the downward arrow and assign the VVB to the project.

After successfully assigning the VVB to the project, the next step is to access the VVB profile and click on the "validate" option located in the Projects tab.

To proceed with the workflow, the Standard Registry will validate the project details and schemas. Access the Standard Registry profile and go to the "Project Pipeline" tab. Here, select "Approve" to continue.

If you access the Technical Advisory Committee profile, you will find a "Comment" button. You can utilize this button to provide any feedback or comments regarding the project details and schemas.

Similarly, you can also leave comments for the NGO Supporters by accessing their profile and selecting the "Comment" button.

Navigate back to the Project Proponent profile to complete the monitoring report. In the Projects tab select “Add Report”.

Upon selecting "Add Report", a file will open containing the project details and schemas previously filled out. Here, you can update the information based on the relevant monitoring plan provided by the methodology. After updating the information and including a project area map, you may click on "Ok" to proceed. (For this demo, we utilized the same values from the provided Excel file.)

Once you have completed the monitoring report, please access the VVB profile and go to the monitoring reports tab. Here, you will find a "Verify" button - select that to proceed.

Return to the Standard Registry profile and go to the monitoring reports tab. Here, select "Approve" to proceed.

After reviewing the monitoring report, the Technical Advisory Committee can provide comments. To do this, access the Technical Advisory Committee profile and go to the monitoring reports tab. Here, select the "Comment" button to proceed.

Similarly, you can leave comments for the NGO supporter profile. Navigate to their profile and go to the monitoring reports tab. Here, select the "Comment" button to provide your feedback.

This is the final step in the workflow. Access the Standard Registry profile and navigate to the "Monitoring Reports" tab. Here, you will find a "Mint" button - select that to mint the tokens for this monitoring period.

By accessing the "Token History" tab, you can view the number of tokens that have been minted. Additionally, clicking on the "View TrustChain" button will allow you to view the TrustChain.

The Trust Chain view presents critical elements that are publicly available for discovery, such as token information, policy information, and all the necessary details concerning the Verifiable Credentials comprising the Verifiable Presentation. On the bottom of the screen, you will find "Cards" showcasing the Verifiable Credentials in chronological order.