New Collaboration to Strengthen High-Quality Carbon Projects in the Brazilian Amazon
11 September, London – A new collaboration will produce a Best Practices Guide for two Brazilian state governments to support the development of high-quality nature-based solutions (NbS) carbon projects in the Brazilian Amazon.
The guide is being produced by VCMI and the Amazon Investor Coalition in partnership with the governments of the Brazilian states of Acre and Rondônia to inform their engagement with private sector actors in high-integrity carbon markets. The Guide is being delivered in collaboration with Climate Focus and LACLIMA and will benefit from additional support from the Governors’ Climate & Forests Task Force (GCF-TF).
The Amazon rainforest, home to 10% of all known species and a key regulator of the global climate, is critically endangered. Roughly one-third of its forests have been lost or degraded, threatening biodiversity, global rainfall patterns, and the livelihoods of millions of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs).
The neighboring states of Acre and Rondônia hold significant potential for scaling up high-integrity carbon markets as a tool for community-based conservation.
A new guide to support project developers in the Amazon
As part of VCMI’s Access Strategies Program, which supports governments in emerging markets and developing economies to engage effectively in high-integrity carbon markets, this project will produce by COP30 a comprehensive Best Practices Guide to facilitate carbon market readiness in the Amazon, considering subnational particularities.
The Guide will equip project developers, investors, carbon credit buyers, and civil society organization leaders with clear, accessible, state government-backed guidance on meeting environmental and social safeguards, navigating legal context and land tenure challenges, upholding Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), and ensuring fair benefit-sharing.
The Guide will also clarify how projects can align with state-level jurisdictional programs to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), international best practice to safeguard environmental integrity, and regulatory requirements to unlock demand through Brazil’s emerging Emissions Trading System.
Opportunity for impact
Carbon markets hold enormous potential to channel private sector finance toward forest conservation, restoration, and sustainable land use. But in the Amazon, unclear land rights, legal risks, and concerns over community safeguards present challenges. Poorly designed carbon projects risk undermining trust, jeopardizing community livelihoods, and weakening climate credibility. At the same time, the concept of climate responsibility is not limited to the carbon credit supply chain and includes standard managers, technicians, the scientific community, regulatory support organizations, as well as demand-side stakeholders such as corporate buyers, investors, and financial institutions, in such a way that climate financing can be enabled to address the current climate emergency.
By providing practical, region-specific tools, the new Guide will help ensure project developers uphold environmental and social integrity while building confidence among investors and communities. It will also enable sub-national governments in the Brazilian Amazon to strategically leverage carbon markets to meet their policy priorities for climate, nature and sustainable development.
This collaboration is essential to mobilizing the scale of finance needed to protect the Amazon and accelerate Brazil’s transition to a low-carbon economy.
Supporting Quotes
“As we build towards COP30 in Belem, all eyes are on the need to protect the Amazon’s critical role in the health of our planet. Carbon markets have an important role to play, and businesses, sub-national governments, and communities in the Amazon need to be able to unlock this potential on their own terms, in line with international best practice.
“This Guide will equip project developers in Amazonian states with the practical tools and government-backed guidance they need to build high-integrity nature-based carbon projects that can deliver a meaningful impact on the climate and support local livelihoods.” – Ana Carolina Szklo, Technical Director, VCMI
“This Guide will address a critical information gap essential to strengthening an integrity-centered ecosystem for the implementation of carbon markets in the Amazon. By providing clear guidance, it will enhance the robustness and reliability available to investors and buyers, enabling them to confidently support projects that truly deliver positive socio-ecological impacts.” – Ana Beatriz Freitas, Head of Payments for Environmental Services, AIC
“Private projects must view the principles of high integrity as an opportunity, not as a burden, to elevate their initiatives to a higher level. This ensures recognition of their effective contribution to subnational, national and international climate goals, while also adding value to a market driven by a strong desire for integrity and compliance. It is vital to emphasize the importance of these projects within an integrated strategy, calling them to take responsibility for emissions reduction goals and enhancing the value of the assets they aim to promote.” – Leonardo Carvalho, Secretary of Environment of Acre
“This Guide will reinforce the importance of aligning public policies — at the state, national, and international levels — with global best practices, ensuring the implementation of effective safeguards, robust monitoring systems, and fair benefit-sharing mechanisms. This initiative strengthens the trust of communities, investors, and governments, ensuring that carbon credits represent real emission reductions and contribute concretely to forest conservation and sustainable development.” – Diogo Martins Rosa, Director of Climate Governance, State Secretariat for Environmental Development of Rondônia (SEDAM-RO)
“For over a decade, the states of the Brazilian Amazon have been working on building strategies to access climate financing, focusing on the provision of high-integrity carbon credits. This commitment is reflected in the adoption of rigorous Policies for emission reduction, forest stock conservation, and the recognition of the contributions and roles of Indigenous peoples and traditional communities. It acknowledges that a sufficient flow of resources is not only essential to achieving reductions but also to enabling environmental, economic, and social investments, fostering a virtuous cycle of long-term development.” – Carlos Aragon, Governors’ Climate & Forests Task Force Director for Brazil