Technical Specification
What is a technical specification?
Technical specifications are evidence-based documents that describe the activities that are used to provide carbon offset services in a Plan Vivo project. Technical specifications state the expected carbon offset potential of an activity and specify the management actions required to achieve this potential.
Technical specifications are used by project technicians to assess the carbon offset potential of activities planned by individual producers. By comparing producers' plans with the management requirements stated in the technical specification project technicians can quickly assess the carbon offset potential of the activity without the need for time consuming biomass surveys and baseline studies for each individual activity. Technical specifications also provide easy to measure monitoring indicators which allow rapid and cost-effective monitoring by the technical team and community technicians.
To enable cost-effective verification technical specifications must be evidence-based, this means that all sources of information should be stated and all assumptions made justified.
How are technical specifications developed?
The development of technical specifications involves:
- producer groups - carbon offset activities should always be designed in consultation with producer groups. This will help ensure that activities are suitable for the social and environmental conditions in the target areas.
- the project technical team - will facilitate discussion with producers groups to identify which activities are suitable for providing carbon offset activities in the target area. The technical team will work with research institutes to specify management requirements of identified systems.
- research institutes - may be required to calculate the carbon offset potential of identified activities, for example through biomass surveys and carbon modelling.
A project may require a number of technical specifications reflecting the range of activities carried out by producers in the target area.
The Scolel T project has technical specification for 7 different forestry systems from two eco-regions. Carbon offset activities were identified through discussions with community organisations and farmers groups. Biomass surveys were carried out by a regional research institute (ECOSUR) together with specially trained community technicians. The technical specifications were written and revised by the project technicians in Mexico and the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management in the UK.
What information is required?
Carbon offset activities may be divided into three main categories:
- Carbon sequestration - e.g. afforestation and agroforestry
- Carbon conservation - e.g. protection of existing forests or the use of fuel efficient wood stoves
- Carbon substitution - e.g. the use of solar power to replace electricity generated with fossil fuels, or the use of sustainable grown timber in place of steel or concrete
In each case the following information is required: