At COP 4 (Buenos Aires, November 1998), Parties agreed to recommend decisions for COP/MOP 1 on the questions of definitions under Article 3.3 and additional activities under Article 3.4, and to do so after the IPCC Special Report had been completed and considered by the SBSTA. At COP 5 (Bonn, October/November 1999), Parties endorsed a work programme and decision-making framework on LULUCF to enable these draft decisions to be adopted by COP 6 (The Hague, November 2000). As part of the negotiations, the SBSTA invited Parties to submit country specific data and information on the LULUCF sector according to a standard format agreed at SBSTA 12 (June 2000). Work has also continued inter-sessionally, with several SBSTA workshops convened on LULUCF.

The IPCC Special Report on Land-use, land-use change and forestry was formally presented to SBSTA 12 in June 2000.

Parties failed to reach agreement on LULUCF at COP 6 in The Hague, as part of a package of decisions under the "Buenos Aires Plan of Action", and negotiating texts on the issue, along with those on other issues, were forwarded to a resumed session of COP 6 for further consideration.

At COP 6 part II (Bonn, July 2001), Parties adopted the Bonn Agreements on the Implementation of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, registering political agreement on key issues, including on LULUCF. Parties did not, however, complete their work on a detailed decision on LULUCF based on the Bonn Agreements, and the draft text of the decision was referred to COP 7 (Marrakesh, October/November 2001).

The Bonn Agreements set out a number of principles to govern the treatment of LULUCF activities under the Kyoto Protocol, and also register agreement on definitions of "forest", "afforestation", "reforestation" and "deforestation". The Agreements also stipulate that "forest management", "cropland management", "grazing land management" and "revegetation" are eligible activities under Article 3.4 subject to certain conditions and accounting rules, including an individual cap, listed in a table, on the amount of credit that each Party may claim from forest management. In addition, the Bonn Agreements confirm that only afforestation and reforestation are eligible for projects under the clean development mechanism.

The outstanding problems that surround the issue of LULUCF and prevented the completion of work on a detailed decision at COP 6 part II concern mostly the individual caps listed in the table, including their level and whether they can be reconsidered prior to the beginning of the first commitment period. The Russian Federation put forward a proposal on this issue, which is recorded in a footnote to the draft text forwarded to COP 7.

The information that the IPCC will provide to SBSTA 15 (meeting together with COP 7) on the development of good practice guidance for the LULUCF sector is also relevant to this item.