Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards

Updated 2026-11-02 · 3 min read · By the akar.earth specialist team

CCB standards explained: how the Climate, Community & Biodiversity label works with VCS, its Gold Level options and how Indonesian projects apply it.

The Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards assess whether a land-use project delivers net positive benefits for climate, local communities and biodiversity; projects verified under both VCS and CCB carry a CCB label on their carbon credits. For Indonesian forest projects, VCS plus CCB has long been a common pairing, especially for REDD+ and peat projects with large community footprints.

What the CCB Standards are

The CCB Standards were developed by the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance, a partnership of NGOs, and are now managed by Verra. They are an assessment framework, not a carbon accounting methodology. A project uses a carbon methodology, typically under the Verra VCS program, to quantify tonnes, and uses CCB to show that the same project is good for people and nature.

The current CCB Standards are the third edition. Check Verra’s website for the latest version and any rule updates before preparing a project description.

How CCB is structured

CCB criteria sit in four groups:

Each section has required criteria. The optional CCB Gold Level recognises exceptional climate adaptation, community or biodiversity benefits.

Who uses it

• REDD+ and ARR developers seeking a premium label.
• Buyers who want verified co-benefits rather than marketing claims.
• Ratings agencies and due diligence teams that use CCB documents as safeguards evidence.

Key requirements

Core requirements, in practice, include:

• Stakeholder identification and engagement, with documented consultation and free, prior and informed consent where rights are affected.
• Land and resource rights analysis, including customary rights.
• Grievance mechanism accessible to communities.
• Without-project and with-project scenarios for communities and biodiversity, mirroring the carbon baseline logic.
• Monitoring plans for community and biodiversity indicators, verified by an approved VVB.
• High conservation value identification and protection. See high conservation value.

Validation and verification under CCB can run alongside VCS audits, which saves cost if planned early.

How it applies in Indonesia and Southeast Asia

Indonesian projects face strong scrutiny on community rights. Permenhut 6/2026 names social forestry, customary forests and communities as legitimate, equal participants in forestry carbon trading, and Indonesian rules also set benefit-sharing expectations. CCB’s community section maps closely to these issues.

Practical points:

• Overlapping claims. Concessions in Kalimantan and Sumatra often overlap village land and customary areas. CCB requires these to be identified and addressed.
• Peat and biodiversity. Peat swamp forests host threatened species. CCB biodiversity monitoring can use camera traps, acoustic sensors or eDNA; see acoustic and eDNA monitoring.
• Benefit sharing. CCB does not set a fixed percentage, but auditors test whether benefits are real and fairly distributed. Read our benefit-sharing page.
• Data burden. Community surveys must be repeated over time. Build them into the same field campaigns used for carbon plots.

Planning CCB alongside VCS

Running CCB and VCS together works best when the project plans for both from the start:

• One project description can address VCS and CCB requirements, avoiding duplicated work.
• Combined audits. A VVB approved for both programs can validate and verify them in the same field visit.
• Shared field teams. The same enumerators who measure carbon plots can run household surveys and biodiversity transects, if trained.
• Aligned monitoring periods keep the CCB label attached to each batch of VCUs.

Projects that add CCB late often have to reconstruct community baselines, which weakens the evidence.

Common pitfalls

• Treating CCB as paperwork. Auditors interview community members and check grievance records.
• No baseline for well-being. Without a starting survey, net positive impact cannot be shown.
• Late FPIC. Consent obtained after design is fixed is weak evidence.
• Biodiversity claims without data. Species lists from literature are not monitoring.

Relationship to ICVCM CCP status

The CCB label does not create CCP status. The CCP label depends on a CCP-Eligible program (Verra is listed) and a CCP-Approved methodology. CCB can support the sustainable development and safeguards evidence that ICVCM’s principles expect and that buyers check. See Core Carbon Principles.

Next steps

Read about CCB Gold Level, SD VISta and our guide to community engagement, or return to the standards hub. Our PDD development service covers combined VCS and CCB project descriptions.