Measuring and governing changes in forest
carbon stocks in complex landscapes
Ole Mertz, I-REDD+ Coordinator
With Thomas Sikor, Arne Jensen and many more
COP 18 Doha, 29th November 2012

Department of Geography & Geology
I-REDD+
Impacts of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest
Degradation + enhancement of forest carbon stocks
2011-2014
Funding by European Commission
7th Framework Programme
Organisation Country
University of Copenhagen - Coordinator UCPH Denmark
Leibniz Institut für Agrarentwicklung in Mittel- und Osteuropa IAMO Germany
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin UBER Germany
University of East Anglia UEA United Kingdom
The University of Edinburgh UEDIN United Kingdom
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement IRD France
Universität Bern UBERN Switzerland
Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences KIB PR China
CARES, Hanoi University of Agriculture CARES Vietnam
National University of Laos NUOL Laos
Yayasan WWF Indonesia WWF-IND Indonesia
Center for International Forestry Research CIFOR International
World Agroforestry Centre ICRAF International
Nordic Agency for Development and Ecology NORDECO Denmark

Department of Geography & Geology
I-REDD+ project overview

Department of Geography & Geology
I-REDD+ objectives
A specific focus on:
• Degraded forests and complex landscapes
• Sub-national and local level

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Study sites
• Vietnam: Nghe An Province, Con Cuong District
• China: Yunnan Province, Xishuangbanna Prefecture,
Manlin Village, Xiangming Township
• Laos: Nam Et Phou Loeuy National Protected Area,
Luang Prabang/Huaphan Provinces
• Indonesia: Kutai Barat Regency, East Kalimantan
Same methodologies applied in each country

Department of Geography & Geology
How dependent is successful REDD+ on
community participation in monitoring?
• Can local communities accurately, cost-effectively and
reliably measure carbon stocks in forests subject to
degradation?
• To what extent does sound REDD+ governance rely on local
participation?
• Can local participation in measuring carbon stocks be
integrated in national (and sub-national) MRV?

Accuracy of community measurement

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Costs of measurement
 Measurement of woody biomass by:
,.l a t e nes e na D
l i
 Measurement of cut trees by:

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Reliability of community measurement
Incentives to over-report carbon stocks if results are
tied to payments?
Perhaps, but:
• Professional foresters from government agencies could also
be prone to over-reporting if they know government
funding depends on C-stocks
• Any type of measurement has to be subject to 3rd party
verification
• Manipulation of large data sets can often be detected by
analysing coherence in data

Monitoring and benefit distribution
Payments of local people
?
for C measurement?
budget for
technical
agency?
Source:
UN-REDD

Monitoring and governance
Monitoring is part of governance
Governance rights
• management
• enforcement
• monitoring
• ...
=> monitoring influences effectiveness and social justice
of REDD+

I-REDD+ research on governance
Analysis of 10 existing benefit distribution mechanisms
(BDM) in China, Vietnam, Laos and Indonesia:
Top-down state governance remains common:
• local people may get limited use rights yet rarely
receive governance rights
• in some cases, international NGOs share some
governance rights
Many of these BDMs are not considered effective and
just by local people
Implementation of national REDD+ needs to learn from
these experiences

Monitoring and safeguards
Participatory monitoring helps to integrate UNFCCC
safeguards into core REDD+ design
•safeguard 3: “respect for the knowledge and rights to
indigenous peoples and members of local communities”
•safeguard 4: “full and effective participation of relevant
stakeholders, in particular indigenous peoples and local
communities”

Department of Geography & Geology
Key messages
• Remote sensing based C-stock measurement in complex
mosaic landscapes and degraded forests remains difficult
• It needs to be complemented by ground truth and local
measurement
• Participatory monitoring (PM) provides accurate and cost-
effective estimates for such controls
• PM also contributes to more effective and socially just
REDD+ governance
• PM should be integrated in national MRV as a complement
to professional forest inventories
PM is an opportunity rather than an obstacle to
successful REDD+

Department of Geography & Geology
Thank you
Read more on: www.i-redd.eu
Contact: Ole Mertz, om@geo.ku.dk