Misiones Jurisdictional REDD+ Programme — Argentina's First Verra-Certified Government-Led Forest Carbon Programme

Misiones, in northeastern Argentina, contains a large share of the country's remaining Atlantic Forest, one of the most fragmented biodiversity hotspots on Earth, and the provincial government promotes itself as Argentina's only carbon-negative province.

In 2026 Misiones registered the Misiones Jurisdictional REDD+ Programme with Verra under Scenario 2 of the Verified Carbon Standard's Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+ (JNR) framework, the first government-led, jurisdiction-wide REDD+ programme to be certified in Argentina. Independent validation was carried out by Aenor, and the programme includes a formal mechanism to distribute proceeds back to communities. The province is also pursuing CORSIA-eligible credit sales, including a deal with LATAM Airlines.

The programme verified approximately 10.2 million tCO2e of emission reductions for 2017–2022 across roughly 1.5 million hectares of native forest, and received an A–AA pre-issuance integrity rating from carbon ratings agency Sylvera, among the higher scores given to REDD+ programmes reviewed by the agency. A 2024 BIOFIN biodiversity finance plan identified potential to mobilise around US$420 million over ten years.

Public materials do not disclose how much revenue individual communities receive through the benefit-distribution mechanism, and the frequently cited '52% of Argentina's biodiversity' figure describes the province's general ecological importance rather than a measured outcome of the carbon programme itself. Jurisdictional REDD+ programmes of this kind also carry ongoing scrutiny around permanence and leakage that independent audits will need to keep testing over time.