Community monitoring of carbon stocks for REDD+: does accuracy and cost change over time?

Søren Brofeldt; Ida Theilade; Neil David Burgess; Finn Danielsen; Michael K. Poulsen; Teis Adrian; Tran Ngyen Bang; Arif Budiman; Jan Jensen; Arne E. Jensen; Yuyun Kurniawan; Simon B. L. Lægaard; Zhao Mingxu; Meine van Noordwijk; Subekti Rahayu; Ervan Rutishauser; Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt; Zulfira Warta; Atiek Widayati

doi:10.3390/f5081834

Community monitoring of carbon stocks for REDD+: does accuracy and cost change over time?

Søren Brofeldt, Ida Theilade, Neil David Burgess, Finn Danielsen, Michael K. Poulsen, Teis Adrian, Tran Ngyen Bang, Arif Budiman, Jan Jensen, Arne E. Jensen, Yuyun Kurniawan, Simon B. L. Lægaard, Zhao Mingxu, Meine van Noordwijk, Subekti Rahayu, Ervan Rutishauser, Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt, Zulfira Warta, Atiek Widayati

Section for Global Development

23 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) is a potentially powerful international policy mechanism that many tropical countries are working towards implementing. Thus far, limited practical consideration has been paid to local rights to forests and forest resources in REDD+ readiness programs, beyond noting the importance of these issues. Previous studies have shown that community members can reliably and cost-effectively monitor forest biomass. At the same time, this can improve local ownership and forge important links between monitoring activities and local decision-making. Existing studies have, however, been static assessments of biomass at one point in time. REDD+ programs will require repeated surveys of biomass over extended time frames. Here, we examine trends in accuracy and costs of local forest monitoring over time. We analyse repeated measurements by community members and professional foresters of 289 plots over two years in four countries in Southeast Asia. This shows, for the first time, that with repeated measurements community members’ biomass measurements become increasingly accurate and costs decline. These findings provide additional support to available evidence that community members can play a strong role in monitoring forest biomass in the local implementation of REDD+.

Original language	English
Journal	Forests
Volume	5
Issue number	8
Pages (from-to)	1834-1854
Number of pages	21
ISSN	1999-4907
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/f5081834
Publication status	Published - 2014

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Brofeldt, S., Theilade, I., Burgess, N. D., Danielsen, F., Poulsen, M. K., Adrian, T., Bang, T. N., Budiman, A., Jensen, J., Jensen, A. E., Kurniawan, Y., Lægaard, S. B. L., Mingxu, Z., van Noordwijk, M., Rahayu, S., Rutishauser, E., Schmidt-Vogt, D., Warta, Z., & Widayati, A. (2014). Community monitoring of carbon stocks for REDD+: does accuracy and cost change over time? Forests, 5(8), 1834-1854. https://doi.org/10.3390/f5081834

Brofeldt, S, Theilade, I, Burgess, ND, Danielsen, F, Poulsen, MK, Adrian, T, Bang, TN, Budiman, A, Jensen, J, Jensen, AE, Kurniawan, Y, Lægaard, SBL, Mingxu, Z, van Noordwijk, M, Rahayu, S, Rutishauser, E, Schmidt-Vogt, D, Warta, Z & Widayati, A 2014, 'Community monitoring of carbon stocks for REDD+: does accuracy and cost change over time?', Forests, vol. 5, no. 8, pp. 1834-1854. https://doi.org/10.3390/f5081834

@article{96f28b23b9dd4fa19d9d7f74a28c9223,

title = "Community monitoring of carbon stocks for REDD+: does accuracy and cost change over time?",

abstract = "Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) is a potentially powerful international policy mechanism that many tropical countries are working towards implementing. Thus far, limited practical consideration has been paid to local rights to forests and forest resources in REDD+ readiness programs, beyond noting the importance of these issues. Previous studies have shown that community members can reliably and cost-effectively monitor forest biomass. At the same time, this can improve local ownership and forge important links between monitoring activities and local decision-making. Existing studies have, however, been static assessments of biomass at one point in time. REDD+ programs will require repeated surveys of biomass over extended time frames. Here, we examine trends in accuracy and costs of local forest monitoring over time. We analyse repeated measurements by community members and professional foresters of 289 plots over two years in four countries in Southeast Asia. This shows, for the first time, that with repeated measurements community members{\textquoteright} biomass measurements become increasingly accurate and costs decline. These findings provide additional support to available evidence that community members can play a strong role in monitoring forest biomass in the local implementation of REDD+.",

author = "S{\o}ren Brofeldt and Ida Theilade and Burgess, {Neil David} and Finn Danielsen and Poulsen, {Michael K.} and Teis Adrian and Bang, {Tran Ngyen} and Arif Budiman and Jan Jensen and Jensen, {Arne E.} and Yuyun Kurniawan and L{\ae}gaard, {Simon B. L.} and Zhao Mingxu and {van Noordwijk}, Meine and Subekti Rahayu and Ervan Rutishauser and Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt and Zulfira Warta and Atiek Widayati",

year = "2014",

doi = "10.3390/f5081834",

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pages = "1834--1854",

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T1 - Community monitoring of carbon stocks for REDD+

T2 - does accuracy and cost change over time?

AU - Brofeldt, Søren

AU - Theilade, Ida

AU - Burgess, Neil David

AU - Danielsen, Finn

AU - Poulsen, Michael K.

AU - Adrian, Teis

AU - Bang, Tran Ngyen

AU - Budiman, Arif

AU - Jensen, Jan

AU - Jensen, Arne E.

AU - Kurniawan, Yuyun

AU - Lægaard, Simon B. L.

AU - Mingxu, Zhao

AU - van Noordwijk, Meine

AU - Rahayu, Subekti

AU - Rutishauser, Ervan

AU - Schmidt-Vogt, Dietrich

AU - Warta, Zulfira

AU - Widayati, Atiek

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) is a potentially powerful international policy mechanism that many tropical countries are working towards implementing. Thus far, limited practical consideration has been paid to local rights to forests and forest resources in REDD+ readiness programs, beyond noting the importance of these issues. Previous studies have shown that community members can reliably and cost-effectively monitor forest biomass. At the same time, this can improve local ownership and forge important links between monitoring activities and local decision-making. Existing studies have, however, been static assessments of biomass at one point in time. REDD+ programs will require repeated surveys of biomass over extended time frames. Here, we examine trends in accuracy and costs of local forest monitoring over time. We analyse repeated measurements by community members and professional foresters of 289 plots over two years in four countries in Southeast Asia. This shows, for the first time, that with repeated measurements community members’ biomass measurements become increasingly accurate and costs decline. These findings provide additional support to available evidence that community members can play a strong role in monitoring forest biomass in the local implementation of REDD+.

AB - Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) is a potentially powerful international policy mechanism that many tropical countries are working towards implementing. Thus far, limited practical consideration has been paid to local rights to forests and forest resources in REDD+ readiness programs, beyond noting the importance of these issues. Previous studies have shown that community members can reliably and cost-effectively monitor forest biomass. At the same time, this can improve local ownership and forge important links between monitoring activities and local decision-making. Existing studies have, however, been static assessments of biomass at one point in time. REDD+ programs will require repeated surveys of biomass over extended time frames. Here, we examine trends in accuracy and costs of local forest monitoring over time. We analyse repeated measurements by community members and professional foresters of 289 plots over two years in four countries in Southeast Asia. This shows, for the first time, that with repeated measurements community members’ biomass measurements become increasingly accurate and costs decline. These findings provide additional support to available evidence that community members can play a strong role in monitoring forest biomass in the local implementation of REDD+.

U2 - 10.3390/f5081834

DO - 10.3390/f5081834

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1999-4907

VL - 5

SP - 1834

EP - 1854

JO - Forests

JF - Forests

IS - 8

ER -

Community monitoring of carbon stocks for REDD+: does accuracy and cost change over time?

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