Approved Tools

This tool is for the estimation of carbon benefits from Plan Vivo projects aiming to increase the carbon stocks in soils from agroforestry and conservation agriculture implemented by smallholders. The tool applies the SHAMBA Model, which applies the Rothamstead Carbon Model (RothC) to quantify the changes in soil organic carbon stocks under different management scenarios.

Status: *ON HOLD*
Type: Tool
Version 2.0: PT001 V2.0 | V2.0 Assessment Report (Active from: 08/11/23)
Developer: TLLG & Plan Vivo TAC
Reviewers: Plan Vivo TRP & Earthood Service Private Ltd

This tool is for the estimation of carbon benefits from Plan Vivo projects aiming to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in community managed forests. Procedures are described for estimating expected emissions or carbon benefits at the start of a verification period, and for verification of emissions or carbon benefits at the end of the verification period.

Status: Active
Type: Tool
Version 2.0: PT002 V2.0 | V2.0 Assessment Report (Active from: 08/11/23)
Developer: TLLG & Plan Vivo TAC
Reviewers: Plan Vivo TRP & Earthood Service Private Ltd

Provides guidance on using models to estimate carbon baselines and carbon benefits in PV Climate projects, consistent with Methodology Requirements 1.2.2 and 1.5.1. It is applicable to all PV Climate project interventions and locations that use empirical or process-based models. 

Status: Active
Type: Tool
Version 1.0: PT003 V1.0 | V1.0 Assessment Report (Active from: 12/05/25)
Developer: TLLG & Plan Vivo TAC
Reviewers: Plan Vivo TRP & Preferred by Nature

Provides procedures for identifying degraded and degrading lands in PV Climate projects. It can be referenced in PV Climate methodologies, for example, to justify conservative baseline assumptions. Aims to guide projects in applying best practices to develop robust assumptions regarding land degradation status and trajectory, consistent with Methodology Requirement 1.2.4 on managing unquantifiable uncertainties.  

Status: Active
Type: Tool
Version 1.0: PT004 V1.0 | V1.0 Assessment Report (Active from: 12/05/25)
Developer: TLLG & Plan Vivo TAC
Reviewers: Plan Vivo TRP & Preferred by Nature

Used to determine whether deforestation has taken place on a Project Area and is applicable to Projects that apply small-scale agroforestry practices. It describes the procedures for assessing whether a Project Area will pass or fail the PM002 eligibility criterion associated with deforestation assessment within small-scale agroforestry Projects. Deforestation within the scope of this Tool is defined as the act of clearing trees (human-induced) resulting in forest land being converted to non-forest land. Project Areas with deforestation within the 10 years prior to Project Area onboarding will not be considered eligible and are therefore not able to participate in the Project, unless it can be demonstrated that the deforestation has occurred due to natural events. 

Status: Active
Type: Tool
Version 1.0: PT005 V1.0 | V1.0 Assessment Report (Active from: 29/09/25)
Developer: Acorn
Reviewers: Plan Vivo TRP & AENOR

The approach to select representative ground truth data collection locations, per ecoregion (stratum) is described in this Tool. In addition, the standard operating procedure (SOP) for ground truth data collection and a method to transform it for use as input for biomass modelling are provided. Ground truth data must be utilized to develop, train, and validate the biomass model described in Methodology PM002 and Module PU006, as well as to estimate the pre-project tree biomass on a Project Area Level. The ground truth data must be also used to determine the contributions of pre-project tree biomass described in Methodology PM002 and Module PU007. 

Status: Active
Type: Tool
Version 2.0: PT006 V1.0 | V1.0 Assessment Report (Active from: 29/09/25)
Developer: Acorn
Reviewers: Plan Vivo TRP & AENOR