Resource

This sourcebook provides a consensus perspective from the global community of earth observation and carbon experts on methodological issues relating to quantifying the green house gas (GHG) impacts of implementing activities to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation in developing countries (REDD). It further aims to provide additional explanation, clarification, and methodologies to support REDD early actions and readiness mechanisms for building national REDD monitoring systems. It emphasizes the role of satellite remote sensing as an important tool for monitoring changes in forest cover, and provides clarification on applying the IPCC Guidelines for reporting changes in forest carbon stocks at the national level. With political discussions and negotiations ongoing, the current document provides the starting point for defining an appropriate monitoring framework considering current technical capabilities to measure gross carbon emission from changes in forest cover by deforestation and degradation on the national level. This sourcebook is a living document and 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.