In carbon offset projects, additionality is crucial for determining the quality of carbon offset credits. A project is said to be "additional" if its associated greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions would not have occurred without the specific intervention, thereby ensuring the credibility and effectiveness of the carbon credits issued.
Additionality is respected if the cut would not have been done without the financial contribution of the issued CO2 certificates.
As the cut was already executed and the calculation was done retrospective, this condition was not respected in the examined Pilot project. But if the cut is done for biodiversity reasons and the resulting CO2 certificates are used to finance the cut or increase the managed surface, then this condition would be respected.