Monitoring systems that allow for credible and affordable measurement, reporting and verification of REDD activities are among the most critical elements for the successful implementation of any REDD mechanism.
Without free, frequent and useful data it is impossible to estimate, report and verify emission reductions. This verification is essential to countries in order to be compensated for the CO2 sequestration their forests provide.
Monitoring in support of implementation of REDD and development of national systems for Measurement, Reporting and Verification of Carbon is one of the main pillars of the work of the UN-REDD programme.
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The UN-REDD Programme is supporting countries to develop cost-effective, robust and compatible systems for measurement, reporting and verification. Such systems are designed to use a scientific base, available technology – and most importantly - respond to national needs. The programme provides planning tools and advice to help countries to strengthen their technical and institutional capacity for effective national MRV system.
The data for reporting the UN-REDD Programme promotes must be:
- transparent
- consistent
- comparable
- accurate
Capacity building on MRV
Capacity building efforts are an integral part of almost all UN-REDD activities on MRV.
Regional training of counterparts and sharing of experience with various partners has been on-going since the launching of the programme, mainly through financial and technical support to other partners such as the Coalition for Rainforest Nations and its Capacity Development-REDD workshops.
Generating knowledge that will feed into the policy processes is key. It will help strengthen institutions to reach verifiable emission reductions from deforestation and forest degradation. The UN-REDD programme is providing training for the use if IPCC Good Practice Guidance and for National Green House Gas (GHG) Inventories in Non-Annex I Countries.
Working together
The programme also cooperates with space agencies and facilitates coordination among various data supplies ensuring that it is available and free of charge. One of the most recent achievements in cooperation includes the improvement of remotely sensed datasets and user tools with the GEO Institution. Within this collaboration, FAO will deliver the datasets, and help build country capacities to assess, report and verify changes in forests and carbon stocks.
During the COP-15 in Copenhagen, FAO and the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research Centre (INPE) signed an agreement to join forces to help countries develop MRV systems. For many years, Brazil has been a champion in remote sensing and continues to lead the way for large-scale monitoring of deforestation and forest degradation.
Parameters of forest degradation and the best practices for assessing them are also currently under development with the support of the Collaborative Partnership on Forests (CPF) who is developing methodologies for degradation.
The programme draws on FAO’s work and experience to support Global Forest Resources Assessment, national forest and land-use assessments which are being renewed to better respond to the UNFCCC change requirements. It also counts on UNEP’s expertise on biodiversity-related monitoring through its World Conservation and Monitoring Centre, and links to training programmes on forest GHG inventories under the UNDP National Communications Support Program.
Data on carbon content of forests is the main focus but to achieve increased impact on REDD other multiple benefits of forests must be addressed taking into account each national context.
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