Governance and documentation Approved Approaches Approved Approaches What are Approved Approaches? An Approved Approach is a methodology or tool that is used in the quantification or justification of climate benefits, risk, additionality or monitoring data for a Plan Vivo project or prospective Plan Vivo project. Who can use an Approved Approach? Approved Approaches include applicability criteria, which define the scope of the methodology/tool and the type of projects that it is suitable for. Any project that would like to apply an Approved Approach must demonstrate that they meet these criteria. If a suitable approved approach is not available, projects can develop or adopt their own approaches for estimating emissions and removals, and submit them to the Plan Vivo Foundation for approval. This can be done in the relevant sections of the PDD or separately. Plan Vivo projects are encouraged to make use of simple, low cost approaches where possible, although other methodologies can be considered. List of Approved Approaches Approved Approach type Applicable project types Applicable geographical area Carbon pool/emission source included Link to documentation Additionality assessment All Global N/A Additionality Assessment Estimation of emissions and removals (Baseline scenario; Project intervention) Afforestation; Reforestation; Agroforestry; Agricultural land management Global Above ground woody biomass; Below-ground woody biomass; Soil organic carbon; Biomass burning; Fertilizer application Small-Holder Agriculture Monitoring and Baseline Assessment (SHAMBA) methodology (for further support on SHAMBA, see the SHAMBA tool website) Estimation of emissions and removals (baseline scenario) Prevention of deforestation Tropical/sub-tropical evergreen or semi-evergreen forests Above-ground woody biomass Estimating Reference Emission Levels Estimation of emissions and removals (Baseline scenario; Project intervention; Leakage) REDD in community managed forests Global Above-ground woody biomass; Below-ground woody biomass Estimation of Climate benefits from REDD in community-managed forests Assessing risk and quantifying non-permanence buffer allocation All Global N/A Assessing Risk and Setting the Risk Buffer Can I submit a new Approved Approach? Anyone is welcome to submit a new Approved Approach. These are reviewed internally and externally by a team of experts, along with a public consultation. Please contact the Plan Vivo Secretariat if interested.