Abstract
High-quality data for REDD+ monitoring, measurement, and reporting are critical for the continued success of REDD+ implementation and Results-Based Payments. Collect Earth is a free, user-friendly, and open-source software for land monitoring developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The tool allows countries to undertake land monitoring easily and rapidly through a sample-based approach and generate Activity Data (data on the magnitude of human activity resulting in emissions or removals during a given period of time) through augmented visual interpretation with low costs. Under the Paris Agreement, countries will have to update the greenhouse gas inventories that they report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change every two years through the Biennial Update Reports. One of the important benefits of using sample-based approaches such as the one proposed by Collect Earth is the possibility to achieve a detailed classification of the land-use sub-categories with high accuracy of the estimates for land-use changes occurring since 2000. However, most guidance documents developed for capacity building in developing countries for REDD+ reporting only advocate developing land-cover and land-cover change maps using remote sensing. As several countries already use Collect Earth and the sample-based methodology to report on REDD+, this commentary advocates for a more representative approach and a methodological debate on the potential of sample-based approaches using remote sensing, and when possible combined with ground truthing, to estimate Activity Data for REDD+ and countries’ greenhouse gas inventories for the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use sector in general.
Highlights
High-quality data on the magnitude of human activity resulting in emissions or removals taking place during a given period of time, known as Activity Data, are crucial if we are to successfully mitigate against climate change and fully operationalized financial mechanisms such as Results-Based Payments (RBPs) for REDD+
First developed in 2013, Collect Earth (Figure 1) is a free and open-source software for land monitoring developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
This only document onlyland-cover promotes land-cover and land-cover change maps as conThis document promotes and land-cover change maps as considerations siderations forsensed remotely sensed observations. This resource is often referred by the partfor remotely observations. This resource is often referred to by thetopartners that ners that capacity provide capacity to developing countries, as by well asdonors by the donors and provide buildingbuilding to developing countries, as well as the and finance finance mechanisms for countries to obtain REDD+ Results-Based Payments (RBPs)
Summary
High-quality data on the magnitude of human activity resulting in emissions or removals taking place during a given period of time, known as Activity Data, are crucial if we are to successfully mitigate against climate change and fully operationalized financial mechanisms such as Results-Based Payments (RBPs) for REDD+ A recent overview of Platforms for Big Earth Observation Data Management and Analysis [6] finds that from the standpoint of ease of use and development maturity, Google Earth Engine is the platform that delivers the best solution for users. It has drawbacks such as the lack of guarantee of platform continuity, the ease of use, development maturity, and free access are critical for Collect Earth targeted at developing countries’ users. Developing countries engaged in the REDD+ process thereby have the opportunity, depending on the national circumstances and the financial status, technology transfer and capacity building, to use the data measured for REDD+ to access RBPs and to fulfil their reporting requirements under the Enhanced Transparency Framework
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