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About Eco-Asset
Verification & Certification
Before issuing credits, allocations, certificates or
other ecological assets, some form of certification
is typically required by sponsoring agencies in order
to ensure that incentive-based PERC
programs properly uphold the public trust.
To ensure objective assessment of program results, the
certification process usually begins with appointment
of an independent third party responsible for project
oversight. This independent party may be appointed by
the sponsoring agency in consultation with the project
manager. Project oversight then leads to verification
of the project manager's intended goals, and this is
formally reported to the agency, leading to official
certification of the project and subsequent issuance
of eco-asset paper.
Verification is intended to be an impartial examination
of a project's environmental policies, management system,
procedures for review, auditing, reporting and long
term care, drawn up by the project manager in accordance
with agreed-upon eco-asset project goals. Verification
address measurable success associated with the preservation,
enhancement, restoration or creation of ecosystem services.
Verification is done to ensure that the project manager
has taken appropriate levels of responsibility for ecosystem
service PERC, ensuring a measurable and sustainable
level of asset productivity.
Certification does not always have to be driven by government
agencies. In fact, elaborate, voluntary certification
programs have been established, such as the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000 (quality
management and assurance) and 14000 (environmental management
systems), and such as the various forest certification
systems designed to integrate forest productivity and
environmental management goals in ecologically friendly
ways*.
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an independent,
non-profit membership organization with over 300 members
from over 40 countries interested in eco-friendly forest
management. FSC does not certify forests itself, but
sets a threshold for certification programs that timber
and wood products that companies must meet if they are
to achieve FSC certification. This certification is
deemed desirable by some companies because FSC members
include organizations whose reputation for protecting
the public interest carries over to the certified company
itself. Currently, FSC has accredited two certification
bodies in North America: the SmartWood
Program of the Rainforest Alliance, and Scientific
Certification Systems' Forest Conservation Program.
Certification is associated with every formally approved
eco-asset type, including criteria air pollutants, wetlands,
species and not-wetland habitats, riparian stream zone
restoration, aquifer recharge and others. Certification
gives the assets strength in the open marketplace because
they are seen as being linked to consistently known
standards arising from, first scientific, then policy-based
(public interest) criteria.
Certification is voluntary with some still-emerging
assets such as greenhouse gas offsets and distributed
emission reductions (DERs).
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*For a comparison of forest certification
systems, see the Forest Certification Resource Center's
report
on the characteristics of competing programs.
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