About TREES
TREES – The REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard – is ART’s standard for the quantification, monitoring, reporting and verification of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reductions and removals from REDD+ activities at a jurisdictional and national scale.
Under TREES, countries and eligible subnational jurisdictions can generate verified emission reduction and removal credits by meeting precise and comprehensive requirements for:
- accounting and crediting
- monitoring, reporting and independent verification
- mitigation of leakage and reversal risks
- avoidance of double counting
- assurance of robust environmental and social safeguards
- and the transparent issuance of serialized units on a public registry
ART and TREES have been designed to help accelerate progress toward national scale accounting and implementation to achieve emissions reductions and removals at scale and to achieve Paris Agreement goals.
TREES builds on early action pilot programs and is consistent with UNFCCC decisions including the Paris Agreement, the Warsaw Framework and the Cancún Safeguards.
TREES 2.0
In August 2021, the ART Board approved TREES Version 2.0, which expanded its scope beyond emission reductions from reducing deforestation and forest degradation – the most urgent priority for the forest sector – to include two additional crediting approaches, as well as pathways for participation of a broader range of stakeholders to contribute to the goals of the Paris Agreement. Learn more.
TREES 1.0
In February 2020, ART published the ART Board-approved TREES Version 1.0. While TREES 1.0 and its supporting materials are no longer used by REDD+ Programs, they are presented for transparency. Learn more.