Bandai Hills

  • Verra is a carbon credit registry that verifies carbon credit projects, issues credits, and aggregates project data. Verra also publishes methodologies for a variety of project types. Verra hosts important documents containing information about project design and location. Verra hosts projects that are mostly part of the voluntary carbon market, and do not participate in regulatory markets.

  • IFM involves enhancing carbon stocks in existing forests through practices like extended rotation periods, reduced-impact logging, and fire management. While IFM can increase carbon sequestration, its impact on biodiversity varies; some practices may benefit certain species by creating more diverse forest structures, while others might negatively affect species adapted to specific forest conditions. In some cases, IFM projects have also resulted in a tradeoff between carbon storage and biodiversity, with projects that highly value carbon sequestration efficacy negatively affecting biodiversity.

  • Monoculture (-) vs. Polyculture(+): Carbon removal through nature-based strategies involves using plants to sequester carbon. The range of plant diversity varies from project to project and has biodiversity implications for the area. Projects that utilize diverse plant species in operations instead of singular species may potentially uplift biodiversity.


    Presence (-) vs. absence (+) of Invasive Species: Specific species selection for nature-based carbon credit projects also has biodiversity implications. While there has not been a clear divide between native and non-native species' effects on biodiversity, presence of invasive species are shown to impact biodiversity negatively.


    Extractive (-) vs. Non-extractive(+): Extractive activities in addition to generation of carbon credits, such as the timber, agricultural, or mining operations pose a threat to biodiversity due to its disruptive nature.

  • The Bandai Hills project boosts economic activity and living standards by creating jobs, empowering women, and promoting sustainable development. Positive social and economic impacts are assessed through community engagement, site visits, and risk evaluations. Key stakeholders include the Ghana Forestry Commission, Agogo Stool, and local communities, with discussions ongoing since 2014. Income from Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) helps address financial barriers, while small-scale subsistence farming continues until harvests are completed. Plans for a ‘Training Farm’  support permanent agriculture, and women's empowerment drives greater investment in health and education, enhancing overall community welfare.

  • The project contributes to biodiversity enhancement by replacing degraded shrublands with bamboo forests and reserving areas for native species. However, the additionality is limited due to the location, which is in close proximity to a protected area.

The Bandai Hills Reforestation Project encompasses 7,818 hectares in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. This project sits adjacent to the North Bandai Bamboo Reforestation Project, and the projects are jointly managed with a total of 10,681 hectares of land destined for reforestation. The pre-reforestation landscape includes heavily degraded shrublands with invasive grasses, as well as some small remaining forest patches. These remaining forest patches are not included in the active project area. The land that has been highly degraded for at least 10 years is being planted with 1.5 million seedlings of giant clumping bamboo. The remaining degraded land will be set aside for the planting of native plants and the conservation of biodiversity. The 20 year plan is projected to sequester 188,926 tCO2e each year for a total of 3,778,511 tCO2e sequestered (Verra Bandai Hills).

Bandai Hills Scores:

  • Ecosystem Intactness: Measured using the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) BII can be used to quantify changes in ecosystem composition, providing a measure of Species Richness and abundance relative to undisturbed ecosystems.

  • Species Threat Level: Measured using the Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STARt). The STARt value indicates how local threat abatement could contribute to avoiding species extinction, and every species in a given region is assigned its own score.

  • Presence of Rare Species: Measured using Rarity-weighted Richness (RWR). RWR differs from traditional Species Richness by highlighting areas that support rare species. Rare species are defined here as those that have small geographic ranges. This makes RWR useful for identifying areas critical for conserving endemic, or geographically restricted, species.

  • Restoration Potential: Measured using the Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STARr) metric. The STAR metric incorporates present species threat levels, threats, and restoration opportunities on a regional level. The metric also outputs a STARr value, which quantifies the impact of restoration based on how much habitat is restorable and what proportion of that specific habitat exists worldwide.

  • Human-caused Degradation: Measured using the global Human Modification Index (HMI). The global HMI is a commonly used metric helpful when quantifying the structural integrity of ecosystems and measuring how humans have altered the terrestrial landscape around the world, degrading ecosystems and impacting biodiversity in the process given location.