How long does an afforestation project have before it must register with Verra, and how long can it earn credits?

Eight years to register, one year to list. Under VCS Standard v5.0, an afforestation, reforestation and revegetation (ARR) project of any size can file its registration request up to eight years after its crediting period starts. Its crediting period then runs 20 to 100 years, renewable up to four times, within 100 years in total.

The clock starts with the first work on the ground

For ARR, Verra gives site preparation and planting as examples of the start date: soil preparation, clearing, tree planting, or a change in management that leads to regeneration. That date opens the first monitoring period, and every deadline below counts from it.

Two deadlines, not one

• Pipeline listing request: within one year of the initial crediting period start date, for every project type.
• Registration request for ARR, wetland restoration and improved forest management projects of any size: within eight years of that date.
• Other land-use projects: five years, unless their ex-ante estimate is 20,000 t CO2e a year or less, which also gets eight years.
• Energy and industry projects get only two years, so a mixed programme cannot plan on the forestry timeline.

How long the trees can earn

• Crediting period: 20 to 100 years, renewable up to four times, never more than 100 years in total.
• If trees are harvested, the period must cover complete harvest cycles. Verra's own example: with 12-year cycles, the period is at least 24 and at most 96 years.
• Carbon stocks must be monitored for permanence for at least 40 years. If your crediting period is shorter and an avoidable reversal happens within 40 years of the start, you compensate the pooled buffer account.
• A renewal request is due within two years of the end of the previous period. Miss it and the project stops earning for good.

What to collect while you wait

Eight years is long, but the monitoring period starts on planting day. Plot boundaries, planting dates, species, survival counts and dated photos from the first season are the evidence a verifier will ask for later, and they cannot be recreated afterwards.

Example: a mangrove planting that started on 1 July 2026

• Pipeline listing request due: by 1 July 2027
• Registration request due: by 1 July 2034 (eight years)
• Chosen crediting period: 30 years, to 30 June 2056
• Renewal request, if wanted: within two years after the period ends
• Permanence monitoring: at least 40 years from the start, to 2066

Dates are an example. Your start date follows the VCS Program Definitions and your methodology.

What Senseible does here

Senseible's carbon removal tools include an offline field app that maps each plot by walking its edge and logs geotagged photos, with everything feeding one verifier evidence pack. An accredited verifier checks it and Verra decides on registration and issuance.

• Mangrove credits in India
• AFOLU non-permanence risk
• What goes in a verifier pack
• Carbon removal projects

Sources: Verra, VCS Standard v5.0 (16 December 2025): Sections 3.2.25 to 3.2.26 and 3.8, Tables 6 to 8

Last reviewed 2026-11-03. Verra updates the VCS Standard; confirm Tables 7 and 8 in the current version before fixing project dates.