NATIONAL FOREST MONITORING SYSTEMS FOR REDD+ UNDER THE UNFCCC International Guidance & National Implementation Regional Workshop on Forest Carbon Assessment and Monitoring in Pacific Island Countries 18 th June 2012 Joel Scriven Forestry Department FAO UN-REDD Programme
Outline United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change REDD+ National Forest Monitoring System for REDD+ under the UNFCCC Monitoring MRV Measurement Reporting Verification
The UNFCCC The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international environmental treaty that was launched at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro (1992) that sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenges posed by climate change (objective, Article 2) The text of the UNFCCC sets out commitments which all countries must follow, among them, all Parties, taking into account their common but differentiated responsibilities and their specific national and regional development priorities, objectives and circumstances, shall develop, periodically update, publish and make available to the Conference of the Parties, in accordance with Article 12, national inventories of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of all greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol, using comparable methodologies to be agreed upon by the Conference of the Parties
Why REDD+? The IPCC recognised the contribution of emissions from the forestry sector in developing countries to climate change Research showed that reducing emissions from the forest sector was an opportunity to reduce emissions and increase removals cost-effectively (IPCC, 4AR) This lead to address the forest sector in Developing Countries under the Bali Action Plan (Decision 1/CP.13) as a means to mitigate climate change, informally known as REDD+
REDD+
The REDD+ Activities Five activities are eligible under the REDD+ in developing countries (paragraph 70, Decision 1/CP.16): a) Reducing emissions from deforestation b) Reducing emissions from forest degradation c) Conservation of forest carbon stocks d) Sustainable management of forests e) Enhancement of forest carbon stocks REDD + Five separate activities: allows countries to focus on the ones that are most applicable to their national circumstances Voluntary participation
ACTIVITY EXPLANATION USEFUL INDICATORS Reducing emissions from deforestation Reducing emission from forest degradation Conservation of forest carbon stocks Sustainable management of forests Enhancement of forest carbon stocks Deforestation is the conversion from forest land use to another land use (e.g. forest land to crop land) Degradation is the human-induced loss of carbon stocks within forest land that remain forest land Is an effort to decrease the threat that forests and to ensure permanence by establishing long-term commitments to preserve forest Generally refers to bringing the rate of extraction in line with the rate of natural growth or increment Refers to 1) non-forest land becoming forest land, & 2) the enhancement of carbon stocks in forest land remaining forest land - Reduced rate of forest loss - Reduced rate & volume of timber extraction - Strengthening & expansion of protected area network - Increased land under sustainable management (e.g. CFM, SFM) - Increase in reforestation & afforestation - Degraded forests allowed to regenerate - Enrichment planting
International Guidance on REDD+: Cancun Agreements (Decision 1/CP.16) REDD+ will be implemented through policy approaches & positive incentives REDD+ should be implemented in three phases (paragraph 73) Countries should develop the following elements (paragraph 71): A national strategy or action plan Forest reference emission levels and forest reference levels RELs/RLs (performance benchmarks) A national forest monitoring system A safeguards information system (seven REDD+ safeguards in Appendix 1) Countries should address: drivers of D&D, land tenure issues, forest governance issues, gender considerations and REDD+ safeguards
Three Phases of REDD+ REDD+ PHASES Phase I - Capacity building - Design of National Plans, policies & measures READINESS Phase II - Implementation of national policies and action plans, demonstration activities Phase III - Positive incentives for verified performance Choice of REDD+ activities will depend on national circumstances Demonstration activities must be results-based they have to result in positive outcomes The mitigation performance of REDD+ has to be measured and reported by the country, and verified
UN-REDD Programme Was established in 2008 to support countries to prepare for REDD+ Collaboration between three UN agencies: UNDP, UNEP and FAO
REDD+: Update from Durban (2011) (Decisions 1/CP.17 and 12/CP.17) Durban concluded that a new climate agreement should be finalised by 2015, to come into force no later than 2020, which will include REDD+ Makes reference to that both market and non-market approaches to support results-based actions could be developed to finance performed based actions Measurement, Reporting & Verification (MRV) of forestry GHG emissions will be a pre-condition to results-based finance Provides guidance on systems to provide information on safeguards and forest reference emission levels and reference levels (RELs/RLs)
National Forest Monitoring Systems for REDD+
Copenhagen (COP15, 2009) Decision 4/CP.15: Methodological guidance for REDD+ Requests developing country Parties to establish robust & transparent national forest monitoring systems that: (i) Use a combination of remote sensing and ground-based forest carbon inventory approaches for estimating forest-related greenhouse gas emissions, forest carbon stocks and forest area changes (ii) Provide estimates that are transparent, consistent, accurate, etc. [IPCC] (iii) Are transparent and their results are available and suitable for review as agreed by the COP National forest monitoring systems to be used to measure GHG emissions from forestry
Cancun Agreements (COP16, 2010) Para.71: Requests developing country Parties aiming to undertake REDD+ activities to develop: (c) A national forest monitoring system for the monitoring and reporting of REDD+ activities (with, if appropriate, subnational monitoring & reporting as an interim measure) Para. 77: for the full implementation of results-based actions 8 8 these actions require national forest monitoring systems REDD+ actions must be results-based National forest monitoring systems to be used to monitor the outcomes of REDD+ activities
National Forest Monitoring Systems for REDD+ National forest monitoring systems have two functions: A Monitoring Function: to monitor progress of REDD+ activities; An MRV Function: to contribute to the measuring & reporting on REDD+ mitigation performance (emissions & removals in CO 2 -equivalents) to the UNFCCC; which then undergoes verification Phased implementation of National Forest Monitoring Systems: 1. PREPARATION: Design, technical capacity building & technology transfer 2. DEMONSTRATION: Monitoring of (sub-national) demonstration activities 3. NATIONAL IMPLEMENTATION: National monitoring operational and MRV of national REDD+ mitigation performance READINESS PHASES
Functions of the National Forest Monitoring System NATIONAL FOREST MONITORING SYSTEM MONITORING SATELLITE EARTH OBSERVATION WEB-GIS DATA SHARING COMMUNITY MONITORING TRADITIONAL FORESTRY MONITORING SYSTEMS MRV MEASUREMENT REPORTING VERIFICATION
NATIONAL FOREST MONITORING SYSTEM: MONITORING FUNCTION
Monitoring Systems To assess whether REDD+ is resulting in net positive outcomes, i.e. results-based In Phase 2 of REDD+ To monitor the outcomes of demonstration (subnational) activities In Phase 3 of REDD+ To monitor the outcomes of REDD+ Activities (resulting form national policies and measures on all the national territory) Phase 3 Phase 2 Technical requirements Satellite Monitoring System (remote sensing) Web-GIS interface (for transparency, open access)
MONITORING: Brazil s System http://www.dpi.inpe.br/prodesdigital/prodes.php
Democratic Republic of Congo s Forest Monitoring Web-GIS Portal http://www.rdc-snsf.org
http://www.paraguay-smf.org/ Paraguay s Forest Monitoring Web-GIS Portal
NATIONAL FOREST MONITORING SYSTEM: MRV FUNCTION
MRV for REDD+ Purpose: To assess anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks related to forest land To enable measurement of the carbon stock change outcomes of REDD+ activities, following the most recent methodological guidance of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for developing countries To enable the reporting of GHG mitigation performance (in CO 2 -equivalents) of REDD+ activities to the UNFCCC Only has to be fully operational in Phase 3 of REDD+
MRV: Measurement Measurements of area change (Activity Data) and forest carbon stock changes (Emission Factors) ACTIVITY DATA Area / forest cover change data (hectares per year) Achieved using SATELLITE REMOTE SENSING and GIS EMISSION FACTORS Assessment of biomass, carbon stocks Data are obtained from a NATIONAL FOREST INVENTORY (NFI) This information provides the basis to compile a GHG inventory for the sector GHG INVENTORY GHG assessment to determine national mitigation performance (of REDD+ activities) Based on the data collected from the NFI and satellite remote sensing UNFCCC templates and other software are available for forest categories ACTIVITY DATA Satellite Land Representation System 2005 x EMISSION FACTORS National Forest Inventory = GHG Inventory
MRV: Measurement Emissions = AD x EF AD = Activity Data x EF = Emission Factors = GHG Emissions/Removals (GHG Inventory)
MRV: Reporting Purpose: At the moment for reporting GHG mitigation performance (in MtCO 2 e) to the UNFCCC Secretariat as part of national communications Activity: Compilation of national data and statistics in the format of a GHG inventory LULUCF Inventory Inventory compilation QA/QC GHG inventory UNFCCC Emission Inventory Database Content: Core elements national communications are information on emissions and removals of GHGs and details of mitigation activities Frequency: Para. 60 Decision 1/CP.16 (on NAMAs): Decides to enhance reporting in national communications from Parties not included in Annex I (i.e. developing country Parties): (b) Should submit national communications to the COP every four years (c) Should also submit update reports every two years: Updates of national GHG inventories National inventory report Reporting Public awareness National circumstances Financial resources Vulnerability assessment Transfer of technology
MRV: Verification Purpose: To independently check the accuracy and reliability of information reported in the GHG inventory or the procedures used to generate information Who: The UNFCCC Secretariat, through its roster of experts (Expert Review Teams), will verify the methods used to generate the data How: A team of experts visit the country for 1 week or centralized review of several countries How: The different means of verification are: interviews (e.g. key government officials and national NGOs); analysis of national inventory (NIR) reports and Common Reporting Format (CRF) tables, media reports, and/or other in country information Submission Independent Reviewers Role of the country: Make available all data through the NIRs and CRFs, and other information, including satellite remote sensing and NFI data
Overview of MRV for REDD+ (THE UN-REDD APPROACH) M ACTIVITY DATA Satellite land monitoring system x EMISSION FACTOR National Forest Inventory R = REDD+ Inventory 2005 LULUCF Inventory UNFCCC Inventory compilation QA/QC Emission Inventory Database V Roster of Experts (UNFCCC Secretariat)
Phased implementation of the National Forest Monitoring System REDD+ PHASES Phase I Design (Readiness) Phase II Implementation of Action plans results-based demonstration activities (Readiness) Phase III Positive incentives for verified performance NATIONAL FOREST MONITORING SYSTEM PHASES Capacity building & development - Monitoring of demonstration activities - Capacity building for MRV - National forest monitoring for REDD+ -All elements for MRV in place
VINAKA FOR YOUR ATTENTION! joel.scriven@fao.org