Some stories only exist if someone tells them. They pass from person to person, survive in memory, and end up written in papers few people ever read. And then there are a rare few—so large that they no longer depend on who narrates them: they can be seen from space.

The story of the forests of Misiones is one of those. You don't need a map to find it in a satellite image of northeastern Argentina: the deep green of the Paranaense Rainforest draws it on its own, standing against the advancing productive landscape that surrounds it.
 

Today, that story adds a new chapter—and a historic one.
 

A Milestone Without Precedent
 

Verra has approved the issuance of the first 10,175,209 VCUs (Verified Carbon Units) from the JNR Program of the Province of Misiones, developed under the provincial ECO2 Program, corresponding to the 2017–2022 crediting period. This is also one of the largest issuances ever made for a single verification period. With it, Misiones becomes the world's first JNR program to reach this stage: the first of its kind globally led by a subnational government and certified under Verra's VCS standard.

Each VCU represents one tonne of CO₂ equivalent whose reduction has been independently verified. Behind that number lie more than 3 million hectares of Atlantic Forest—one of the most biodiverse and most threatened ecosystems on the planet—protected as the result of decades of public policy.
 

Why This Program Is Different
 

Most carbon projects operate at a local scale: a single property, a single estate, a single developer. A jurisdictional program (JNR—Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+) works at an entirely different scale: it credits verified emission reductions across an entire jurisdiction.
 

Misiones operates under Scenario 2 of Verra's JNR Framework, which allows a government to generate credits over forest areas not covered by any individual project, while at the same time setting the reference baselines within which those projects must nest to ensure consistent accounting.

Misiones is the first program in the world to achieve certification through this pathway. It's the difference between telling a story plot by plot and telling it at the scale where it actually unfolds: that of an entire province that decided, long ago, that its rainforest was worth more standing.
 

Coralia's Role
 

Supporting a process of this magnitude demands sustained technical rigor over years. At Coralia, we had the privilege of doing exactly that, from end to end. Among our contributions:

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• The drafting of the Program Description document (PD), the piece that articulates and underpins the entire program.

• The generation of the forest emissions reference level activity data (FREL), the foundation on which the entire reduction calculation is built.

• The application of the methodology and the development of the MRV system (measurement, reporting, and verification) that safeguards the integrity of the results.

• The generation of the monitoring period activity data.

• The design of the legal framework governing VCU ownership, a key piece in giving the entire scheme certainty.

• The analysis of uncertainties, leakage, and non-permanence, three of the most demanding pillars of any REDD+ program.

• The preparation of the responses to findings from AENOR, Verra, and Sylvera throughout the validation, verification, and assessment process.
   

What This Means
 

Beyond the number, what Misiones demonstrates is that a subnational government can build the institutions, policies, and partnerships needed to protect its forests while bringing the results of that effort to international climate finance markets. It's a replicable model—for other Argentine provinces and for jurisdictions across Latin America, Africa, and Asia now exploring jurisdictional-scale approaches. Misiones has just shown that the path exists, and that it can be walked.
 

Thank You
 

A milestone like this is never achieved alone. We thank Verra for accompanying the entire process, and especially Mandy Rambharos for her invaluable comments; AENOR for its outstanding work as the validation and verification body; Silvania and Andrés Huby, for making the financing of such a pivotal initiative possible; and Alejandra Scafatti for her collaboration. And, above all, the Province of Misiones, which made the conservation of its rainforest a state policy long before a market existed to recognize it.

The best stories need many hands to be told. This is one of them.