As a key building block for REDD+ Readiness, the FCPF supports countries on the development of a range of MRV and carbon accounting issues, including land-use change analysis, forest degradation analysis and visual assessment reference grids, the preparation of national Forest Reference Levels, and the implementation of national MRV systems. The FCPF has generated the following resources to support countries with the implementation of their MRV and carbon accounting.
REDD+ Nesting
The FCPF has developed a number of resources to support countries in developing their REDD+ nesting strategies. The REDD+ Nesting Manual provides guidance for the design and implementation of nested systems, and along with the accompanying Decision Support Tool (DST) aims to guide decision makers through a process of planning, identifying, and implementing efficient nested REDD+ systems. The nesting design provides guidance in defining the objectives of the nesting system, various approaches to REDD+ implementation, and other design considerations. The report Approaches to REDD+ Nesting: Lessons Learned from Country Experiences is intended to share past experiences on REDD+ Nesting.
Options for Conserving Stable Forests
The FCPF has published a report Options for Conserving Stable Forests exploring and deepening the current understanding of the need and options for conserving stable forests. The report defines such forests as not already significantly disturbed nor facing predictable near future risks of anthropogenic disturbance. Together with the main report, the Executive Summary outlines the global extent of the stable forests, what their value is, and what options are available for protecting them, as they are mostly excluded from policy and financial valuations that could incentivize maintenance and ongoing protection, such as REDD+. The report is also accompanied with three annexes, Annex A: Literature Review, Annex B: Methodology and Supplementary Results, and Annex C: Case Studies. In the five case study countries (i.e., Georgia, Guyana, Indonesia, Liberia, and Republic of Congo) the stable forest loss rates varied greatly by country, with the highest rate observed in Liberia and lowest in Georgia. A main finding is that stable forest loss is not only an issue in lower income or less developed countries, but rather a global phenomenon that must be addressed.
Remote Sensing-based Estimation of Forest Carbon Stocks and Dynamics
The Full Report summarizes the technological challenges and strategies to overcome these in utilizing a remote-sensing based estimation of forest carbon stocks and dynamics, which can be grouped into four areas: data availability and access; processing and computational performance; uncertainty management; and standardization and protocols. The report further highlights the appropriate enabling environments for rolling out these innovative technologies, such as policies and regulations; institutions and stakeholders; capacity and information; finance and sustainability; and social, cultural, and behavioral factors. Based on the findings and recommendations of the report, the Policy Brief summarize the necessary policy actions to enable the implementation of a second generation MRV system, i.e., MRV 2.0. In order to launch a discussion on the recommendations of the policy brief, a side event to the GFOI Plenary was organized to discuss about the importance of in-situ data and identify solutions to promote the collection and sharing of this valuable data to enable an MRV 2.0
Lessons Learned
The Lessons Learned Report provides recommendations to relevant agencies and donors as they help countries to develop and operate their NFMS. The reports also provide recommendations for the delivery of capacity building by agencies and support from donors, including through the GFOI. The report Choices in Quantifying Carbon for Jurisdictional REDD+ provides an overview of the methodological choices made by FCPF Carbon Fund countries.
Sample Based Area Estimation
These materials are intended to support countries in the application of the sample-based approach to estimate activity data. The presentation is intended to policy makers, to socialize the need for sample-based approaches for area change estimation in the REDD+ context. The templates of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and reports are intended to support the in-country technical teams to elaborate their QA/QC systems for activity data estimation.
GOFC-GOLD Training Modules
Overview: Complementary to the REDD+ Decision Support Toolbox, this set of training materials was produced jointly with the Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) initiative. This resource was created in response to country calls for technical assistance and guidance for improving operational forest monitoring and building capacity to measure, report and verify the results of REDD+ intervention.
How it works: The material includes fourteen self-guided technical modules with practical country examples and training exercises. This modular structure means the material can be used in different settings (workshops or hands-on training) and be tailored to different audiences (REDD+ policy or in-country technical experts). This material can be used in combination with the FCPF REDD+ Decision Support Tool and complementary guidance documents (such as GOFC-GOLD Sourcebook or technical guidance from the Global Forest Observation Initiative).
It is also available in Spanish and French.