How much soil carbon can a CCTS afforestation project claim under tool BM-T-AR-0006?

The tool assumes soil carbon rises from its pre-project level to the native forest reference over 20 years, at a constant rate capped at 0.8 t of carbon per hectare a year. Reference stocks and change factors are IPCC defaults, and disturbing over 10% of a stratum costs 10% upfront.

When the tool applies

• Not on wetlands or organic soils.
• Not on land already under the high-input or improved practices the tool lists, such as well managed, non-degraded grassland.
• Litter stays on site.
• Soil is disturbed only for site preparation, along the contours, and not again within 20 years.

The steps

1. Initial soil carbon = reference stock x land use factor x management factor x input factor.
2. If the project disturbs more than 10% of a stratum's area beyond the baseline, deduct 10% of the initial stock in the year of site preparation.
3. Yearly gain = (reference stock minus what remains) / 20, capped at 0.8 t C per hectare a year.
4. Multiply by area and by 44/12 to get t CO2.

Defaults for Indian conditions

• Reference stock, top 30 cm, t C per ha: tropical dry 38 for high activity clay soils, 35 for low activity clay, 31 for sandy; tropical moist 65, 47 and 39; tropical wet 44, 60 and 66; tropical montane 88, 63 and 34.
• Land use factor for cropland cultivated over 20 years: 0.58 in tropical dry, 0.48 in tropical moist or wet climates.
• Low input factor: 0.95 in dry, 0.92 in moist climates. Severely degraded grassland: 0.70.

Worked example: 100 ha of old cropland, tropical dry

• Initial stock: 38 x 0.58 x 1.00 (full tillage) x 0.95 (low input) = 20.9 t C per ha
• Gap to reference: 38 minus 20.9 = 17.1 t C per ha
• Rate: 17.1 / 20 = 0.85, capped at 0.8 t C per ha a year
• Per hectare: 0.8 x 44/12 = 2.93 t CO2 a year
• 100 ha: about 293 t CO2 a year for 20 years, before other deductions

Land and soil type are illustrative; use your own soil classification.

What Senseible does here

Senseible gives carbon credit eligibility signals from your records; it does not register projects or issue credits. It keeps dated, fingerprinted fuel and electricity invoices that a project's monitoring records can draw on.

• Afforestation CCTS credits
• Soil carbon sampling depth
• Displaced farming leakage

Sources: BEE, BM-T-AR-0006 Tool for estimation of change in soil organic carbon stocks due to A/R ICM project activities (CCTS Offset Mechanism, version 1.0, 27 March 2025): Tables 4 to 7, BEE, Methodologies and Tools under the CCTS Offset Mechanism

Last reviewed 2026-10-25.