• Building off of four years of experience working with 26 jurisdictions, the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) releases the latest version of the world’s leading jurisdictional REDD+ standard
  • A new time-bound transition pathway, developed in coordination with the World Bank, gives Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and Initiative for Sustainable Forest Landscapes (ISFL) jurisdictions a route to continue accessing carbon finance through ART

ARLINGTON, VA, 25 June 2026 – The Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) has released version 3.0 of The REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard (TREES), its high-integrity standard for measuring, monitoring, verifying and crediting climate progress in the forest sector. TREES 3.0 opens new pathways for jurisdictions to join ART, streamlines requirements and adds clarity throughout the Standard.

TREES 3.0 reflects four years of experience implementing the Standard across 26 participating programs, including the first IPLC-led jurisdictional REDD+ collaboration, in addition to ongoing input from forest countries, IPLC organizations and representatives, technical assistance providers like UN-REDD, and other stakeholders. The revised Standard ensures TREES continues to represent best practice, including streamlined reporting, improved readability and clearer requirements throughout. TREES 3.0 also provides increasing flexibility for Participants to use existing data sets for monitoring removals.

“TREES 3.0 reflects what we have learned from four years of working alongside jurisdictions, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and technical partners to continue to improve the world’s leading jurisdictional REDD+ standard. This version opens the door for more jurisdictions to join, makes our requirements clearer and reporting more efficient, and ensures TREES continues to represent best practice in the market. High integrity and broad participation are not competing goals: they reinforce one another, and TREES 3.0 is designed to deliver both,” said Mary Grady, Executive Director, ART.

Throughout the TREES 3.0 revision, the IPLC Advisory Group has been highly active and engaged, providing invaluable input and advice on topics such as safeguards, benefits sharing, and the rights to emission reductions and removals. The IPLC Advisory Group will also provide input on updated guidance documents related to safeguards.

“There will not be integrity in carbon markets without the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. Building standards with those who have protected forests for generations sets an important precedent: recognizing the value of collective knowledge that arises from these territories and its contribution to the rules that guide carbon markets in a way that respects the rights of Indigenous Peoples. The review of TREES shows this is possible,” said Fermín Chimatani Tayori, President of ANECAP.

“There is a growing social demand for carbon markets to provide certainty regarding their contribution to climate change and to strengthen the respect for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples; and TREES 3.0 is part of the solutions that are needed,” said Gustavo Sanchez, President of Red Mocaf.

TREES 3.0 introduces a transition pathway, developed in coordination with the World Bank, for jurisdictions participating in the World Bank’s FCPF and ISFL programs, as well as other eligible Participants, to join ART under unique eligibility criteria. The pathway provides a time-bound onramp that builds on work done to date and recognizes the challenges faced by some key groups of jurisdictions, allowing those that have navigated the early-mover challenges of jurisdictional forest programs to come into the ART fold through TREES 3.0.

Building on the 16 years the World Bank has worked with these countries to develop their programs, the pathway creates an opportunity for jurisdictions to continue accessing carbon finance after the World Bank funds sunset. Nearly 25 percent of the world’s tropical forests are already represented in jurisdictional REDD+ programs listed on the ART Registry, an area covering more than 400 million hectares (1 billion acres) of forest, twice the size of Greenland. The new transition pathway is anticipated to meaningfully expand this area even further. ART will work with the World Bank on transition tools to support FCPF and ISFL jurisdictions through this process.

“This transition pathway is an important opportunity for countries that have invested years in building high-integrity jurisdictional REDD+ programs through the FCPF and ISFL. It provides a practical route for these countries to scale-up their high-integrity programs by accessing carbon markets. It recognizes the substantial investments countries have made in building the institutions, safeguards, and monitoring systems needed to deliver verified emission reductions at scale,” said Olivier Mahul, Global Manager for Carbon Finance Solutions, World Bank Group Climate Department.

Another meaningful change in TREES 3.0 is the extension of the period for subnational accounting from the end of 2030 to the end of 2035. After this time, Participants must be national governments and report national emissions annually, though crediting can occur at either a national or subnational scale. This extension continues to incentivize subnational crediting, including in IPLC territories, as a critical step toward national accounting.

“The strength of TREES has always rested on its integrity and the rigor of the process behind it. With TREES 3.0, the Board is confident that the Standard continues to meet that bar while becoming more accessible to the jurisdictions doing the hard work of protecting and restoring forests. The active engagement of the IPLC Advisory Group and the dozens of stakeholders who shaped this revision is exactly the kind of governance that gives the market confidence in TREES Credits,” said John Verdieck, Chair of the ART Advisory Board.

Jurisdictions with an accepted TREES Registration Document may complete their current crediting period under TREES 2.0; all other Participants must use TREES 3.0.

The release of TREES 3.0 follows a robust public consultation that drew more than 30 submissions and nearly 700 individual comments. ART has responded to each comment individually, and the full set of comments and responses, along with the Statement of Reasons, is available on the ART website.

For the full set of supporting materials, visit the TREES 3.0 page, including the TREES 3.0 text in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French, a Summary of Changes from TREES 2.0, responses to all public comments and a Statement of Reasons. Templates, calculations tools, and guidance documents for TREES 3.0 will be forthcoming.

ART will host webinars about TREES 3.0 in multiple languages:

Webinars will be recorded and posted on the ART website.

About the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART)

The Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) is a global carbon crediting program that certifies high-integrity emission reductions and removals from protecting and restoring forests at scale. ART operates at a jurisdictional scale to align with Paris Agreement requirements for REDD+ and to help finally decouple economic development from forest loss. As the leading global expert on jurisdictional REDD+, ART is led by a dedicated, independent secretariat that is governed by a Board of globally recognized experts. ART engages with key stakeholders to ensure different perspectives are represented in the design and implementation of its program. To ensure social integrity, ART directly aligns with the UN-defined Cancún Safeguards. As a result of its comprehensive efforts, ART serves as a global quality benchmark for jurisdictional REDD+. This role advances ART’s mission, which is to provide the confidence in the environmental and social integrity of emission reductions and removals from forest protection and restoration to unlock finance at scale for ambitious climate action and to incentivize governments to achieve those results.