Cookstove, rice and forest projects explained

Most voluntary credits come from a small number of project families. This guide covers three that people ask us about most. We describe how they work generically. Individual projects differ, so use this as a list of questions, not a verdict on any project you have been offered.

Clean cookstove projects

Around the world, a very large number of households cook over open fires or simple stoves burning wood, charcoal, crop waste or kerosene. The smoke damages health, and where wood is cut faster than it regrows, cooking adds carbon dioxide to the air and degrades forests.

Cookstove projects hand out or sell more efficient stoves, or stoves that use cleaner fuels such as LPG, ethanol or electricity. The credits come from the fuel that households no longer burn.

How the tonnes are counted

The calculation multiplies a few key numbers:

• How much fuel a household used before and after the new stove.
• How many stoves are actually in use, and how often.
• The fraction of the wood that was not renewable, known as fNRB. Wood from a forest that regrows does not count as a net emission; wood that permanently depletes forest does.
• For charcoal, how much wood went into making it.

Where it goes wrong

Each of those numbers can be pushed upward. Projects have used high fNRB values that independent estimates did not support, assumed stoves were used every day when surveys showed families kept their old stove too, and relied on lab tests in place of kitchen measurements. A peer-reviewed study published in 2024 by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley estimated that a sample of cookstove projects had been over-credited about ninefold on average. Developers disputed parts of the analysis, but the study pushed programs to tighten rules.

In 2024 and 2025 the Integrity Council approved some newer cookstove methodologies, with conditions on fuel-use measurement and on fNRB values. Older versions and some simplified methods were not approved.

Questions to ask

• Which methodology and version is used, and does the credit carry a CCP label?
• How was stove use measured: kitchen surveys, sensors on stoves or fuel sales?
• What fNRB value was used, and where does it come from?
• Are old stoves collected or still in use?

Rice paddy methane projects

Flooded rice fields release methane, because bacteria in waterlogged soil break down organic matter without oxygen. Rice cultivation is one of the larger human sources of methane, a gas that traps much more heat than carbon dioxide over the first few decades after it is released.

Projects pay farmers to change practices that cut methane. The best known is alternate wetting and drying, where fields are allowed to dry out periodically instead of staying flooded all season. Others include direct seeding instead of transplanting, shorter flooding periods and better handling of rice straw.

How the tonnes are counted

Measuring methane on thousands of small fields is hard, so most methods combine field records, such as water levels and dates, with emission factors or models. Some projects add direct measurements on sample plots.

Where it goes wrong

Additionality is a live question. In some regions, alternate wetting and drying spreads by itself because it saves water and pumping costs, so carbon money may pay for change that was coming anyway. Emissions also vary a lot with soil, weather and fertilizer use, and drier fields can release more nitrous oxide, another greenhouse gas. Registries have rejected batches of rice projects over registration problems.

The Integrity Council has been assessing rice methodologies. In early 2026 it published observations on one water-management methodology, setting a condition on how additionality must be demonstrated and noting the measurement uncertainty. Others were still under review at the time.

Questions to ask

• How common is the practice already in the project area?
• Were emissions measured on site or estimated from defaults?
• Does the method account for nitrous oxide and for changes in soil carbon?
• How do farmers share in the revenue?

Forest projects

Forest credits come in three main forms:

• Avoided deforestation, often called REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation), pays to protect forest that is judged to be at risk of clearing.
• Afforestation, reforestation and revegetation, known as ARR, pays to plant or regrow trees, which remove carbon from the air as they grow.
• Improved forest management pays owners to log less or later than they otherwise would, so more carbon stays in standing trees.

How the tonnes are counted

For REDD+, the project estimates how much forest would have been lost without it, often from historical rates in a reference area, and claims the difference. For ARR, the project measures tree growth through sample plots, remote sensing or both. Improved management compares the carbon kept in a stand with a baseline harvest plan.

Where it goes wrong

REDD+ baselines are the classic problem. Several investigations and academic studies argued that many projects using older methods had assumed far higher deforestation than occurred, which produced credits without matching tonnes. Leakage, where clearing simply moves elsewhere, is another. All forest credits carry reversal risk from fire, drought, pests and illegal logging, which is why programs hold back buffer credits.

In late 2024 the Integrity Council approved a newer project-level REDD+ methodology and two jurisdictional approaches, where a whole state or country measures forest loss against a single baseline. Older REDD+ methodologies were not submitted for assessment, so credits issued under them cannot carry the CCP label. Projects using them have been moving to the new method.

ARR credits avoid the baseline guessing game, but trees take years to grow. Ask whether credits were issued for growth that has already happened or sold in advance.

Questions to ask

• For REDD+, how was the baseline set, and is it tied to regional or jurisdictional data?
• How large is the buffer contribution, and how long does monitoring last?
• How does the project deal with leakage?
• Were local communities consulted, and do they share in the revenue?

The common thread

Every project type earns credits from a comparison between what happened and what would have happened. The second half is always an estimate. Projects that use current methodologies, measure locally and apply conservative defaults are easier to trust. Our guide to judging credit quality covers the general checks, and the homepage checklist flags the points above for each project type.

Questions readers ask

Independent educational guide, relaunched in 2026. Not affiliated with Vida Carbon Corp, Vida Energy or any carbon-credit seller. Nothing here is investment advice.