Validation audit

audit de validation

We’ve been able to carry out the validation audit of our project 😊 For the South Pole technical team, Nicolò, Tosca and Nele, this is the culmination of a lot of hard work and effort. They are the ones who drew up the Project Description Document submitted to Gold Standard and audited in the field over the last few days. This document describes how our project meets all the requirements of the certification standard.
Before starting the audit, we spent a few days preparing with our partners from South Pole and GUIDRE. Our aim was to make the auditors’ work as easy as possible by planning activities with the villages and preparing the necessary documents. Of course, as before an exam, it was an opportunity to rehearse together the strong points of our project and to anticipate any ‘trick’ questions. But as we all know, it’s not just before an exam that you have to learn: you have to plan well in advance, as we have been doing, conscientiously, for the last three years.

approche à pied  approche en moto
The plots were randomly selected and not very accessible, so the approach was by motorbike and on foot.
a proximité d'un village  le centre d'une placette de mesure
The goal was always the measurement plot, at the centre of a radius of 14.11 m (625 m2) [40 plots for 500 ha].

The two auditors, Kuldeep and Manish, from Earthood, accompanied by their interpreter, arrived in Linko on the evening of Tuesday 10 December and the audit itself took place from the 11th to the 16th. They had previously asked to check 48 project documents, such as lists of training participants, minutes of the stakeholder consultation, etc. On site, Kuldeep, the auditor responsible for forestry aspects, visited 15 randomly selected plots to check the baseline measurements.

On site, Kuldeep, the auditor responsible for forestry aspects, visited 15 randomly selected sites to check the baseline measurements. Manish, responsible for social aspects, interviewed over 50 people (seed families, field families, GSCs, authorities, etc.) in eight villages. Of course, coming from India, he had to translate and answer their countless questions.

Diagnostic de la placette  Audit de la placette
 Mesure de la hauteur au clinomètre
Ama Diallo measures the circumference at chest height and Benoît Lelano measures the height with the clinometer.
 
Both GUIDRE and South Pole have acrobats to measure height with the graduated pole 🙂
 
All interviews with beneficiaries follow a rigorous protocol and are documented.
Together we also presented the project to the authorities of the Damaro sub-prefecture, where we will be expanding our activities from 2025:
Présentation du projet aux chefs de village de Damaro
At the beginning our relationships were relatively formal, but as the stay progressed we were able to create more personal links. It has to be said that we were all living with each other 24 hours a day in a small space, with few moments alone. There was never any tension despite our different origins, languages, religions and genders 😊
 
On the left, our living environment for 5 days. Right: Nicolò and Edouard scale the fish.

So what? Did we pass the exam? Our impression of this validation audit is good. Manish and Kuldeep have reported only minor improvements. We’ll know the result in the next few months. The auditors and Gold Standard have the opportunity to conduct three ‘rounds’ of questions and answers, each lasting around 2 months. The final verdict will therefore come in June at the latest, with very likely requests for improvements to be made to the project between now and the next audits. The purpose of these audits will be to check that the project continues to comply with the rules of the standard and that the dendrometric measurements are carried out in accordance with the state of the art.

But for now, the whole project team deserves a big thank you and a welcome rest.