Introduction

This document has been prepared to provide a clear explanation of each clause of the Planetary Carbon Standard (PCS) so that each clause of the standard is interpreted in a consistent manner by the relevant experts. This is very important as it would facilitate the users to understand the requirements as their intended meaning so as to use them in the development of the Project Document (PD). Hence this guideline is intended to be a reference for experts who are keen to use this standard.

This standard is mainly covered the Afforestation and Reforestation sector-related requirements as expected users include entities, e.g., individual landowners, industrial forestry companies and managers of utility company lands, within a country who are interested in implementing forestry activities and projects designed to generate reductions in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) that could be traded as an offset.

PCS comprises six internationally accepted principles and the whole standard requirements have been set based on these principles and those are like pillars of the standard. Considering the foregoing information, the interpretation guide has explained each principle even though a brief description of the said principles is given in the PCS. Also, when designing a Carbon Project Document (CPD) for Afforestation and Reforestation projects the developers should require an understanding of various requirements and this document may also be referred by them.

Moreover, it is necessary to understand the meaning of certain terms and definitions in order to interpret the PCS standard requirements properly and the relevant technical terms which are not explained in the PCS document are included in this document. However, it is worthwhile to indicate that the relevant terms and definitions which are described in the PCS standard are very much important.

In using this interpretation document it is necessary to always consider the current guides published by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and any other current valid applicable documents published by other Internationally recognized bodies and available in the public domain. This interpretive document does not include any applicable legal requirements such as rules and regulations as those have to be obtained and used depending on the country and site.

It is recommended to use this document whenever there is a doubt about any of the requirements of the PCS standard.