FCMC's MRV Task Advances Work on Regional Capacitation and Manual Development
FCMC’s MRV team focuses its efforts on building capacity in MRV protocols linked to REDD+, providing offices and missions with specific MRV and greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory expertise, and assisting in the design and development of national and sub-national systems. Over the past year, FCMC has been developing workshops and a comprehensive MRV manual to assist countries with dynamic forest frontiers that could potentially benefit from REDD+ activities.
|
•FCMC co-hosted its first three events in a series of workshops with SilvaCarbon. The Integration of Remote Sensing, Forest Inventories and Carbon Models workshop was held in San Jose, Costa Rica, from August 20 to 24, 2012. The goal of this workshop was to provide demonstrations of current scientific methods for integration of ground measurements, satellite measurements and carbon modeling to support delivery of higher-tier reporting of national carbon emissions to the IPCC. The Sustainable National GHG Inventory Management Systems in the Andean Amazon Region workshop was held in Bogota, Colombia, from September 24-27, 2012. The main goals were to provide support to government stakeholders through capacity building on GHG inventory activities specific to the Land Use Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) sectors. The workshop was for representatives from Peru and Colombia to present an the current status of activities in their countries and to focus on identifying areas where support could be provided to each country. From January 14 to 18, 2013 FCMC joined SilvaCarbon in holding a Latin American regional MRV workshop in Mérida, Mexico. The objective of the workshop was to review the status of MRV for REDD+ at the national level for the countries represented and to discuss strategies, tools and protocols for advancing national greenhouse gas inventories in the forestry sector to higher levels of reporting. •In January 2013, FCMC launched an activity to support the development of Peru’s forest monitoring system. The overall goals of this activity include building the capacity of the national government to conduct wall-to-wall national forest cover and deforestation monitoring. It also includes a series of regional capacity building workshops in support of a national forest monitoring MRV system for Peru. This project includes the installation of a state-of-the-art, satellite-based forest monitoring system from the University of Maryland, as well as a capacity-building process associated with its implementation. As part of the project, a workshop was held in Lima, Peru, in February 2013. The goals of the workshop were to discuss the production of a national forest cover and deforestation dataset; to begin developing the regional capacity building workshops; and to provide capacity building to representatives from regional governments and institutions within Peru on a range of topics, including general MRV concepts, the fundamentals of remote sensing, classification methodologies and validation techniques. In March, the Peruvian government produced its first version of a map of deforestation from 2000-2010 as a part of this project, which is now being communicated and evaluated nationally. •FCMC is in the process of updating the FCMC REDD+ MRV Manual. Contributions to the manual come from Conservation International, the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute, WWF Paraguay, and the World Resources Institute. It provides a comprehensive guide to a range of topics associated with developing a forest MRV system, including chapters on institutional arrangements, and estimation of carbon stocks, land-cover change and GHG emissions. It also includes three thematic reviews: the history of REDD+ under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; community-based MRV; and near-real time monitoring and alert systems. A shorter Summary for Policymakers document accompanies the manual, aimed at policymakers and covering the fundamental elements of an MRV system. Both documents are being reviewed by USAID and will be publically available later this year. FCMC is coordinating with SilvaCarbon on the production of a follow-on document. |
