GCS Secretariat

The GCS is a not-for-profit non-governmental organization registered in Germany (FR-VR1078). Its highest organ is the annual General Meeting. Its head office is located in Offenburg. It takes all administrative decisions between the meetings of the Technical Panel and the General Meeting.

GCS Technical Panel

The Technical Panel (TP) is comprised of recognized global experts with specialized skills in the areas of conservation biology and economics. The role of the TP is to provide technical steering and guidance of the GCS, assist the approval of GCS documentation, methodologies, entities and projects, provide technical review / feedback of project documents and third-party assessment reports and assist in the awareness raising of the GCS and its partner organizations. Meeting minutes are publicly accessible. More…

Stakeholder Fund

Stakeholder Funds are established in every country where the GCS has a presence. For this purpose, the GCS will cooperate with one or more non-governmental organizations. Depending on the geographical size of the country, the GCS may establish more than one Stakeholder Fund for ease of facilitation of in-country projects.

The Stakeholder Fund is designed to channel finance, technology and commercial expertise to the neighborhood of conservation projects. It helps mitigating poverty and improves sustainable livelihoods of rural communities through:

• The establishment of sustainable agroforestry practices
• The establishment of ethical and sustainable cash crops
• The establishment of sustainable timber plantations
• Providing training and capacity building opportunities to local and rural communities
• Increasing awareness of the realities of global climate change and its mitigation

Auditing and Monitoring

Accredited independent auditors independently control GCS projects and services. Monitoring of the conservation management plan documentation and its application on the ground is carried out annually, which coincides with CCU registration and project administration. The process is supported by modern satellite technology and data imagery. Documentation is publicly accessible, most of it in real time (to come).

GCS Registry

The project registry lists all projects validated under the GCS and provides access to their complete documentation and monitoring results.