Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (LEAF) Program

Link to Standard Operating Procedures for Terrestrial Carbon Measurement

This manual provides standardized field measurements, based on proven field methods, for quantifying carbon emissions and removals from changes in the use and management of lands. These procedures are a key component of a quality assurance and quality control plan needed to provide confidence in results of climate mitigation activities.

Sourcebook of methods and procedures for monitoring, measuring and reporting

This sourcebook  is the outcome of an ad-hoc REDD working group of GOFC-GOLD (Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics) that has been active since the initiation of the UNFCCC REDD process in 2005.  It provides a consensus perspective from the global community of earth observation and carbon experts on methodological issues relating to quantifying carbon impacts of implementation activities to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries (REDD). 

The Sourcebook is now available under the Doha COP 18 Version.  It is to be understood as a living document.  Further methods and technical details can be specified and added with evolving political negotiations and decisions.  Respective communities are invited to provide comments and feedback to evolve a more detailed and refined technical-guidelines document in the future.

BioCarbon Fund

World Bank

Methodology for Estimating Reductions of GHG Emissions from Mosaic Deforestation (1394 kB) - Updated: December, 2008

Description:  The methodology is for estimating and monitoring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of project activities that reduce mosaic deforestation.  Carbon stock enhancement of degraded and secondary forests that would be deforested in absence of the RED project activity is also included in this methodology.  The underlying conceptual approach of this methodology is based on drafts of the AFOLU Guidance Document of the Voluntary Carbon Standard.  The methodologies is currently being used by a number of projects around the world, including the Madagascar Ankeniheny-Zahamena Corridor Project.

Local Participation in Natural Resource Monitoring –  A Characterization of Approaches

No system exists to guide the development and expansion of natural resource monitoring schemes. To help develop such a protocol, the authors present a typology of monitoring categories, defined by their degree of local participation, ranging from no local involvement with monitoring undertaken by professional researchers to an entirely local effort with monitoring undertaken by local people. The strengths and weaknesses of each monitoring category are assessed. Locally based monitoring can lead to rapid decisions to solve the key threats affecting natural resources, can empower local communities to better manage their resources, and can refine sustainable-use strategies to improve local livelihoods.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries in a Post 2012 Climate Regime – A Quantitative Analysis

The final report of a German research project on REDD discusses data availability and methodological questions, especially for six countries (Brazil, Peru, Congo (Brazzaville), Madagascar, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea).

Emissions and removals from land-use, land use change and forestry activities in a post-Kyoto regime - quantitative analysis of a framework for reducing deforestation (2322 kB)
Note: The main text of this report is in English, only the title and a 20 page summary are in German.

EPA is helping developing countries build national inventory management systems and offers two sets of tools, consistent with UNFCCC reporting guidelines and available through the web-link below.

• National System Templates that can accommodate varying levels of national capacity and documents and institutionalize the inventory management process.
• Targeted data collection strategies and software tools to assist developing countries in moving to higher Tier IPCC methods.

In particular, the U.S. EPA—along with USAID and the University of Colorado—is working with forest inventory teams in developing countries to enhance technical capacity and develop sustainable inventory management systems. This work has included development of a software tool that provides support for estimating the majority of emissions and removals from Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry and Agriculture. Thus far, the program has assisted 7 Central American countries and is currently working with 6 Southeast Asian countries on their national greenhouse gas inventories for land use, land use change and forestry, and agriculture.

• Link to EPA's GHG inventory capacity building programs
• Link to the ALU software program
• If you have additional questions regarding these tools, please contact U.S. EPA's Climate Change Division by sending an email to: climatechange@epa.gov

Monitoring and estimating tropical forest carbon stocks: making REDD a reality (614 kB)

A peer-reviewed paper submitted by Mr. John O. Niles, on behalf of the Tropical Forest Group, addresses the issues of monitoring and estimating tropical forest carbon stocks.  The paper has tabular information with multiple estimates of total forest carbon stocks for many developing countries.  The IPCC guidelines (Tier 1) are used for one of the models, but the authors also use other models.