NCGS-M011 — Delivery verification from consignments
- Code: NCGS-M011
- Version: NCGS-2026-09-24
- Approval status: Approved
Verification of what the programme handed over from consignment records: for each consignment, the recipient’s signed acknowledgement, a photograph of the stock and the supplying nursery, the lines of species, quantity, container size and living trees confirmed, and the dispatch packed at the nursery when there was one; from acknowledged consignments the count of living trees delivered, the trees lost in delivery, and with the tree individuals later planted at the same site the planting rate. No tree individual is created and no survival, condition or care is observed (ADR-0003).
underlying principles and assumptions
Custody passes at delivery and the acknowledgement is the evidence of it; a delivery nobody signed for is not a delivery. Delivered-only trees support output claims only, never survival. The living trees the recipient confirms are the denominator of planting rate: trees never planted never become tree individuals, and dead stock is a shortfall of the delivery, not of the site. Rates roll up by summing, never by averaging. Verification happens at delivery, against the receipt, and never through a later monitoring report on delivered-only trees.
methods and procedures
At delivery, record the consignment on the delivery form: site, delivery activity, recipient by identifier and role, date, lines against the nursery delivery note, the tags counted out, the recipient’s signature captured as an acknowledgement item and a geotagged photograph of the stock. Count trees delivered as the sum of the living trees confirmed on the lines of acknowledged consignments. Compute planting rate per site as tree individuals with a planting date at the site over the living trees delivered there. Roll up by summing.
data requirements and inputs
Conformant consignments (the NCGS delivery data requirement) with acknowledgement and stock photograph; the species register for the lines; for planting rate, the site’s tree individuals with their planting dates, whether from planting records by the implementing partner or from owner and steward registrations.
calculation and transformation rules
Let C be the consignments handed over at a site whose evidence includes a recipient acknowledgement, L the lines of those consignments with quantities q_l, and T the tree individuals at the site (through a planting record at the site or a consignment in C) that carry a planting date, whoever planted them. Trees delivered and acknowledged = sum over L of a_l, the living trees the recipient confirms on each line; dead stock is never counted as delivered. Trees lost in delivery = sum over each acknowledged consignment and each species and container size k on it or on its received dispatch of s_k − a_k, where s_k is the dispatch’s quantity for k when the dispatch has it and otherwise the consignment’s line quantity for k, and a_k is the living trees confirmed for k, zero when the consignment has no line for k: a line packed and never delivered counts in full. Planting rate = 100 × |T| / sum of a_l, so dead stock counts against the delivery, never against the site, undefined where no consignment exists. Roll-up over sites, species or places sums the numerators and denominators. A consignment without an acknowledgement is not conformant and contributes nothing to either: neither its lines to the denominator nor its trees to the numerator. A consignment whose delivery attempt outcome is other than handed over is a failed attempt: it delivers no trees and counts in no delivery indicator.
outputs and units of measure
Trees delivered and acknowledged (count, NUM) by species, recipient role, supplying nursery, site and census place; trees lost in delivery (count, NUM) by supplying nursery, species, site and census place; planting rate (PERCENT) by species, site and census place; households that received trees (count, NUM) by census place.
validation and verification approach
Verified at delivery against the receipt: the acknowledgement and stock photograph are the evidence and their content addresses are anchored on the platform. Consignments are not reviewed one by one; they enter the validation sample of the project design. No monitoring report on delivered-only trees is required or accepted as verification (decision register D-7.4).
limitations and applicability boundaries
Counts stock at the gate, not trees in the ground: a consignment to a household says nothing about whether any tree was planted or lives, and the planting rate on such a site depends on owners registering their trees. Container size and species come from the nursery label and are not verified botanically. Defined for the tree delivery and tree planting activity types only.
rationale
Trees may be handed over and never planted by the implementing partner, often a large share of a programme; the funder’s report must show them as delivered and acknowledged, never as surviving. Making the acknowledgement the verification and the consignment the denominator of planting rate says exactly that and no more.
Applicability
- NCGS-M011: a consignment carries no tree-state field; delivery verification observes stock at the gate, never trees in the ground (ADR-0003).
- NCGS-M011: a consignment enters the delivery count only with the recipient’s acknowledgement and a recipient named by identifier and role.
- NCGS-M011: every line names a species or cultivar in the NCGS species scheme, so that trees delivered can be sliced by species.
- NCGS-M011: a consignment carries at least one line with a positive number of trees.
- NCGS-M011: the tags issued with a consignment never outnumber its trees (ADR-0003).
Indicators it serves
Activity types
- Tree delivery
- Tree planting
Knowledge domains a reviewer needs
- Field survey and data capture
Variables
| Variable | Role | Unit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that received trees (|H|) | DerivedOutput | NUM | |H| = count of household-stand sites with at least one consignment in C whose recipient role is owner. |
| Planting rate (R) | DerivedOutput | PERCENT | R = 100 × |T| / D per site, undefined where D is zero; rolled up by summing |T| and D, never by averaging R. |
| Trees delivered and acknowledged (D) | DerivedOutput | NUM | D = sum of q_l over the lines of consignments with a_c true. |
| Trees lost in delivery (|X_L|) | DerivedOutput | NUM | |X_L| = sum over acknowledged consignments and each species and container size k on the consignment or its received dispatch of s_k − a_k: the trees sent (the dispatch’s for k when it has them, otherwise the consignment line’s) minus the living trees confirmed for k (zero when the consignment lists none). |
| Acknowledged (a_c) | MeasuredInput | UNITLESS | Whether the consignment carries a recipient acknowledgement evidence item; only acknowledged consignments count. |
| Line container size (v_l) | MeasuredInput | L | |
| Line quantity (q_l) | MeasuredInput | NUM | The number of trees on one consignment line. |
| Line species or cultivar (sp_l) | MeasuredInput | UNITLESS | |
| Living trees confirmed (a_l) | MeasuredInput | NUM | The number of living trees on one consignment line that the recipient confirms having received. |
| Recipient role (r_c) | MeasuredInput | UNITLESS | The stakeholder role of the consignment’s recipient; implementing partner marks a nursery delivery to a planting site. |
| Supplying nursery (n_c) | MeasuredInput | UNITLESS | The nursery that supplied a consignment, an agent in the nursery role. |
| Tags issued (k_c) | MeasuredInput | NUM | |
| Trees planted from consignments (|T|) | MeasuredInput | NUM | Tree individuals at the site, through a planting record there or an acknowledged consignment handed over there, that carry a planting date, whoever planted them. |
Monitoring requirements
- Verified at delivery, not monitored afterwards: A consignment is verified once, at delivery, against the recipient’s acknowledgement and the stock photograph. No later monitoring of delivered-only trees is required, and none is accepted as verification of delivery (decision register D-7.4).