Article 9 1

1.   To apply for certification of compliance with this Regulation, an operator or a group of operators shall submit an application to a certification scheme.

Upon acceptance of that application, the operator or group of operators shall submit to a certification body an activity plan that includes evidence of compliance with Articles 4 to 7 and the expected net carbon removal benefit or the expected net soil emission reduction benefit generated by the activity, and a monitoring plan.

Groups of operators shall also specify how advisory services are provided, in particular to small-scale carbon farming operators.

For carbon farming activities, Member States may provide advice to farmers in the framework of the farm advisory services referred to in Article 15 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115.

In order to promote the interoperability of relevant databases on carbon farming, where applicable, Member States may include, in the identification system for agricultural parcels referred to in Article 68 of Regulation (EU) 2021/2116, key information listed in Annex II to this Regulation, including management practices related to the carbon farming activity, the start date and end date of the activity, the unique number or code of the certificate of compliance, the name of the certification body and the name of the certification scheme.