13Land management strategy

13 Land management strategy

 (1) An independent person must prepare or review one or more written strategies (a land management strategy) for the implementation of all eligible land management activities to be carried out as part of the soil carbon project until the end of the permanence obligation period for the project that:

 (a) demonstrates the eligible management activities satisfy the requirements in subsection 7(2); and

 (b) for all land included, or to be included, in a CEA, includes the carrying out or maintenance of at least one eligible management activity until the end of the permanence obligation period for the project; and

 (c) documents and takes into account each of the following:

 (i) all the eligible management activities and other land management activities that will be conducted on the land; and

 (ii) the limitations on increasing soil carbon stocks within each CEA; and

Note: Limitations may include soil sodicity, soil structure, environmental factors and micronutrients.

 (iii) risks to soil carbon stocks from environmental factors and the land management activities being carried out; and

Note: Environmental factors include changes in climate impacting the project area.

 (d) specifies any additional steps the project proponent needs to take to monitor the project or keep records relating to the land management activities to verify the objectives of the land management strategies are being achieved; and

 (e) includes a statement that, in the opinion of the independent person:

 (i) activities excluded by section 11, or in breach of section 12, are not being conducted or proposed to be conducted; and

 (ii) the eligible management activities meet the requirements of paragraph 7(2)(b); and

 (iii) the overall impact of all land management activities conducted on the land could reasonably be expected to improve soil carbon stocks over time.

 (2) The land management strategies must:

 (a) cover all of the land included in the CEAs for the project; and

 (b) cover all of the land in a given CEA in a single strategy.

 (3) The initial land management strategies for the project must be prepared:

 (a) if this determination is the applicable methodology determination as a result of a 128 application—before the first offsets report submitted after that application; or

 (b) otherwise—before the section 22 application.

 (4) If a project area is added to a project as a result of a section 29 application:

 (a) one or more existing land management strategies must be revised to cover the additional project area before the section 29 application; or