  This implementation guidance focuses on carbon removal and sequestration via
wood harvesting and storage (WHS), a process where woody biomass, with the
embedded carbon, is stored for long timescales in shallow geologic storage. The
engineering structure designed to ensure such durable storage by preventing
biomass decomposition is called a Wood Vault.
  This guidance contains the requirements for a basic Wood Vault project, and
is intended to aid project developers, verifiers, and registries in this space.
It describes a set of requirements that govern the end-to-end process of carbon
removal and sequestration. This includes carbon accounting, wood sourcing via
wood residual (WR) utilization, Wood Vault construction and maintenance, as
well as processes for monitoring, verification, and credit issuance. Carbon
accounting requirements include baseline, or counterfactual specification, and
full life cycle analysis (LCA) within a specified process boundary. For the
vault itself, the guidance describes a buried vault with the burial chamber
covered by a layer of low permeability material to create anoxic condition.
Other types of vaults can also be used to adjust to local environmental,
transport, and economic constraints. Monitoring and verification requirements
include in-situ sensors, gas sampling, sample excavations, and site
maintenance. This guidance also contemplates land ownership and legal
assurances, as well as environmental and societal impact assessments.
  The implementation guidance concludes with recommendations regarding
auditing, certification and carbon credit issuance.
