Special Issue: The Potential Role for Community Monitoring in MRV and in Benefit Sharing in REDD+

Arturo Torres,Margaret Skutsch

doi:10.3390/f6010244

Abstract

Since the early design of activities to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the need to engage local communities and indigenous groups in monitoring and reporting has been recognized. REDD+ has advanced under the UNFCCC negotiations, but most countries still need to define formally what the role of communities in their national monitoring systems will be. Previous research and experiences have shown that local communities can effectively contribute in the monitoring of natural resources. This editorial introduces a Special Issue of Forests which discusses the implications of and potential for including community based monitoring (CBM) in monitoring and benefit-sharing systems in REDD+. It outlines the main points of the nine contributions to the Special Issue which cover a wide geographical area and report on projects and research which engages more than 150 communities from eight different countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America. The editorial summarizes how the articles and reports build further understanding of the potential of CBM to contribute to the implementation, monitoring and distribution of benefits in REDD+. It also discusses the results of an on-going opinion survey on issues related to CBM and its relation to benefit sharing, which indicates that there is still disagreement on a number of key elements.

Highlights

Developing countries interested in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been requested to prepare a national forest monitoring system (NFMS) and a system to monitor, report and verify implementation (MRV)
The NFMS should be consistent with national inventories of emissions and removals of greenhouse gases that are based on methods and guidance published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
While this case study describes how community monitoring can be included into MRV and benefit sharing in REDD+ in practice, the authors stress that it is necessary that governments define formally the role that community based monitoring (CBM) will play in national programs to create the necessary capacities and deploy the required governance systems [9]

Summary

Introduction

Developing countries interested in reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have been requested to prepare a national forest monitoring system (NFMS) and a system to monitor, report and verify implementation (MRV) They have been requested to engage local communities and indigenous groups as critical stakeholders in this process. Each country needs to define the role that community monitoring may play in the implementation and monitoring of REDD+ The objective of this Special Issue is to discuss and explore the social, technical and political implications and potential of including community-based monitoring (CBM) in MRV systems and benefit-sharing schemes in REDD+.

The Special Issue

Recent Developments

Final Remarks