Restoring degraded lands is high on the international agenda and the number of restoration projects in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has increased considerably over the past decades. However, the variety of approaches used have not been systematically documented and analyzed. We aimed to develop a restoration typology as a function of the geographical and socio-economical setting, planning, timeframe, finances, implementation, monitoring and potential impact, which will help to discern broad patterns and identify gaps in project implementation in LAC. We categorized 97 restoration projects using Multiple Correspondence Analysis and a Hierarchical Clustering on Principal Components. Three main restoration types emerged from the clustering, with the main defining variables being: (1) project area under restoration, (2) amount of funding received, (3) source of funding and (4) monitoring efforts. The first type are large-scale projects, which receive high amounts of funding provided by international donors, and with a well-established monitoring plan; the second type are projects financed with private money, typically lacking a sound monitoring program; and the third type represents small projects with low amounts of funding, financed with public funds from national governments, often with a rudimentary monitoring plan. The typology enables a comparative analysis of the status and trends of restoration activities across Latin America. We conclude that, despite growing awareness and recognition that integrated approaches are needed to revert complex and interconnected socio-economic and environmental issues like land degradation, the socio-economic dimension remains underexposed in the majority of restoration projects, whereas monitoring is still regarded as an extra cost instead of a necessary investment.

The achievement of international goals and national commitments related to forest conservation and management, climate change, and sustainable development requires credible, accurate, and reliable monitoring of stocks and changes in forest biomass and carbon. Most prominently, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in particular require data on biomass to monitor progress. Unprecedented opportunities to provide forest biomass data are created by a series of upcoming space-based missions, many of which provide open data targeted at large areas and better spatial resolution biomass monitoring than has previously been achieved. We assess various policy needs for biomass data and recommend a long-term collaborative effort among forest biomass data producers and users to meet these needs. A gap remains, however, between what can be achieved in the research domain and what is required to support policy making and meet reporting requirements. There is no single biomass dataset that serves all users in terms of definition and type of biomass measurement, geographic area, and uncertainty requirements, and whether there is need for the most recent up-to-date biomass estimate or a long-term biomass trend. The research and user communities should embrace the potential strength of the multitude of upcoming missions in combination to provide for these varying needs and to ensure continuity for long-term data provision which one-off research missions cannot provide. International coordination bodies such as Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI), Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS), and Global Observation of Forest Cover and Land Dynamics (GOFC‐GOLD) will be integral in addressing these issues in a way that fulfils these needs in a timely fashion. Further coordination work should particularly look into how space-based data can be better linked with field reference data sources such as forest plot networks, and there is also a need to ensure that reference data cover a range of forest types, management regimes, and disturbance regimes worldwide.

Land degradation is a globally recognized problem and restoration of degraded land is currently high on the international agenda. Forest landscape restoration and other restorative ecosystem management activities are important measures that contribute towards reaching the objectives of the Bonn Challenge, which aims to restore 350 million hectares by 2030. In this context, many restoration projects are being planned and implemented in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). We present an overview of the location, goals and activities, and an estimated climate change mitigation potential of 154 recent, ongoing and planned restoration projects in LAC. Our analysis suggests that most projects are located in the humid tropics and less attention is paid to drylands. Increasing vegetation cover, biodiversity recovery and recovery of ecological processes are the most common goals. Restorative activities to fulfil these goals were diverse and were related to the type and source of funding that projects receive. For example, projects implemented through the Forest Investment Program (FIP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) generally rely on natural or assisted regeneration over large areas (>20,000 ha), whereas Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects establish forest plantations, often including exotic monocultures, in smaller project areas (<5000 ha). Projects that are specifically implemented within the scope of Initiative 20 × 20 and other local initiatives that target the local environmental problems, are more varied and rely on a wider portfolio of restorative activities, such as erosion control, exclusion of grazing and mixed plantations. These projects are usually implemented in smaller project areas (<5000 ha). All projects had the potential to contribute to climate change mitigation by storing additional forest aboveground biomass through natural regeneration, assisted regeneration or establishing a plantation. Further analysis of the implemented activities is an important next step to investigate their effectiveness in terms of goals achieved under Initiative 20 × 20 and the Bonn Challenge. This would provide information for future restoration projects and upscaling of restorative activities in a wider area.

Mensajes principalesUna clasificacion multivariada de 97 proyectos de restauracion del paisaje forestal en America Latina y el Caribe revelo tres grupos definidos en base al (1) area del proyecto, (2) cantidad de financiamiento recibido, (3) fuente de financiamiento y (4) esfuerzos de monitoreo.El primer grupo lo componen proyectos de gran escala, que recibieron altas sumas para su financiacion por parte de donantes internacionales, y con planes de monitoreo bien establecidos; el segundo lo componen proyectos financiados con fondos privados, y sin un programa de monitoreo; y el tercer grupo esta representado por pequenos proyectos con bajo financiamiento que reciben fondos publicos de gobiernos nacionales y, con frecuencia, con planes de monitoreo incompletos.A pesar del creciente reconocimiento de la necesidad de implementar enfoques integrados para revertir complejos temas socioeconomicos y ambientales que se interconectan, como la degradacion de tierras, estos todavia no son visibles en la mayoria de los proyectos analizados; en tanto que el monitoreo aun es considerado como un costo adicional, en lugar de una inversion necesaria.

The agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sectors contribute substantially to the net global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To reduce these emissions under the Paris Agreement, effective mitigation actions are needed that require engagement of multiple stakeholders. Emission reduction also requires that accurate, consistent and comparable datasets are available for transparent reference and progress monitoring. Availability of free and open datasets and portals (referred to as independent data) increases, offering opportunities for improving and reconciling estimates of GHG emissions and mitigation options. Through an online survey, we investigated stakeholders' data needs for estimating forest area and change, forest biomass and emission factors, and AFOLU GHG emissions. The survey was completed by 359 respondents from governmental, intergovernmental and non -governmental organizations, research institutes and universities, and public and private companies. These can be grouped into data users and data providers. Our results show that current open and freely available datasets and portals are only able to fulfil stakeholder needs to a certain degree. Users require a) detailed documentation regarding the scope and usability of the data, b) comparability between alternative data sources, c) uncertainty estimates for evaluating mitigation options, d) more region -specific and detailed data with higher accuracy for sub -national application, e) regular updates and continuity for establishing consistent time series. These requirements are found to be key elements for increasing overall transparency of data sources, definitions, methodologies and assumptions, which is required under the Paris Agreement. Raising awareness and improving data availability through centralized platforms are important for increasing engagement of data users. In countries with low capacities, independent data can support countries' mitigation planning and implementation, and related GHG reporting. However, there is a strong need for further guidance and capacity development (i.e. 'readiness support') on how to make proper use of independent data sets. Continued investments will be needed to sustain programmes and keep improving datasets to serve the objectives of the many stakeholders involved in climate change mitigation and should focus on increased accessibility and transparency of data to encourage stakeholder involvement.

The Paris Agreement stresses the importance of the land use sector and many countries have included land use sector targets in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). They will need to account for emissions and removals from the sector in a manner that promotes transparency, accuracy, completeness, comparability and consistency. Stakeholders involved have therefore called for independent monitoring” (IM) approaches, i.e. authoritative, unbiased sources of information that they could rely on for their specific needs. More and more datasets and portals that serve these needs have recently emerged (e.g. Global Forest Watch, OpenForis). A stakeholder survey was carried out to identify the level of satisfaction with existing datasets and portals. These were also assessed in a SWORG analysis. We identified common misunderstandings and challenges, such as technical data issues, difficulties regarding data use and interpretation and issues of access and capacities. There is also a lack of awareness and capacities to use IM approaches. In four case studies we illustrate possible pathways to overcome these challenges. We present key elements that are considered to be essential for effective use of IM approaches for land use sector MRV. Bringing the assessment of user needs, opportunities for existing approaches and identification of gaps together, we formulate concrete recommendations for specific stakeholder groups, including data providers and users.

First posted May 31, 2018 For additional information, contact: Director, U.S. Geological Survey12201 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, VA 20192Contact Pubs Warehouse This report was written as a collaborative effort between the U.S. Geological Survey, SilvaCarbon, and Wageningen University with funding provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the European Space Agency, respectively, to address a pressing need for enhanced result-based monitoring and evaluation of delivered capacity-building activities. For this report, the capacity-building activities delivered by capacity-building providers (referred to as “providers” hereafter) during 2011–15 (the study period) to support countries in building measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) were assessed and evaluated.Summarizing capacity-building activities and outcomes across multiple providers was challenging. Many of the providers did not have information readily available, which precluded them from participating in this study despite the usefulness of their information. This issue led to a key proposed future action: Capacity-building providers could establish a central repository within the Global Forestry Observation Initiative (GFOI; http://www.gfoi.org/) where data from past, current, and future activities of all capacity-building providers could be stored. The repository could be maintained in a manner to continually learn from previous lessons.Although various providers monitored and evaluated the success of their capacity-building activities, such evaluations only assessed the success of immediate outcomes and not the overarching outcomes and impacts of activities implemented by multiple providers. Good monitoring and evaluation should continuously monitor and periodically evaluate all factors affecting the outcomes of a provided capacity-building activity.The absence of a methodology to produce quantitative evidence of a causal link between multiple capacity-building activities delivered and successful outcomes left only a plausible association. A previous publication argued that plausible association, although not a precise measurement of cause and effect, was a realistic tool. Our review of the available literature on this subject did not find another similar assessment to assess capacity-building activities for supporting the countries in building MRV system for REDD+.Four countries from the main forested regions of Africa, the Americas, and Asia were chosen as subjects for this report based on the length of time SilvaCarbon and other providers have provided capacity-building activities toward MRV system for REDD+: Colombia (the Americas), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC; Africa), Peru (the Americas), and the Republic of the Philippines (referred to as “the Philippines” hereafter; Asia).Several providers were contacted for information to include in this report, but, because of various constraints, only SilvaCarbon, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) participated in this study. These three providers supported various targeted capacity-building activities through-out Africa, the Americas, and Asia, including the following: technical workshops at national and regional levels (referred to as “workshops” hereafter), hands on training, study tours, technical details by experts, technical consultation between providers and recipients, sponsorship for travel, organizing network meetings, developing sampling protocols, assessing deforestation and degradation drivers, estimating carbon stock and flow, designing monitoring systems for multiple uses, promoting public-private partnerships to scale up investments on MRV system for REDD+, and assisting with the design of national forest monitoring systems.Their activities were planned in coordination with key partners in each country and region and with the support and assistance of other providers. Note that several other organizations and institutions assisted the providers to deliver capacity-building activities, including Boston University, Conservation International, Stanford University, University of Maryland, and Wageningen University & Research.

Monitoring of forest cover and forest functions provides information necessary to support policies and decisions to conserve, protect and sustainably manage forests. Especially in the tropics where forests are declining at a rapid rate, national forest monitoring systems capable of reliably estimating forest cover, forest cover change and carbon stock change are of vital importance. As a large number of tropical countries had limited capacity in the past to implement such a system, capacity building efforts are now ongoing to strengthen the technical and political skillsets necessary to implement national forest monitoring at institutional levels. This paper assesses the current status and recent changes in national forest monitoring and reporting capacities in 99 tropical countries, using the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) 2015 data, complemented with FRA 2010 and FRA 2005 data. Three indicators "Forest area change monitoring and remote sensing capacities", "Forest inventory capacities" and "Carbon pool reporting capacities" were used to assess the countries' capacities for the years 2005, 2010 and 2015 and the change in capacities between 2005-2010 and 2010-2015. Forest area change monitoring and remote sensing capacities improved considerably between 2005 and 2015. The total tropical forest area that is monitored with good to very good forest area change monitoring and remote sensing capacities increased from 69% in 2005 to 83% in 2015. This corresponds to 1435 million ha in 2005 and 1699 million ha in 2015. This effect is related to more free and open remote sensing data and availability of techniques to improve forest area change monitoring. The total tropical forest area that is monitored with good to very good forest inventory capacities increased from 38% in 2005 to 66% in 2015. This corresponds to 785 million ha in 2005 and 1350 million ha in 2015. Carbon pool reporting capacities did not show as much improvement and the majority of countries still report at Tier 1 level. This indicates the need for greater emphasis on producing accurate emission factors at Tier 2 or Tier 3 level and improved greenhouse gases reporting. It is further shown that there was a positive adjustment in the net change in forest area where countries with lower capacities in the past had the tendency to overestimate the area of forest loss. The results emphasized the effectiveness of capacity building programmes (such as those by FAO and REDD+ readiness) but also the need for continued capacity development efforts. It is important for countries to maintain their forest monitoring system and update their inventories on a regular basis. This will further improve accuracy and reliability of data and information on forest resources and will provide countries with the necessary input to refine policies and decisions and to further improve forest management. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.

The lack of country and region specific data poses a serious limitation to converting area estimates of deforestation and forest degradation to carbon stock change estimates for most tropical countries. Thus we cannot make accurate and precise estimates of emissions and removals in national REDD+ programmes and REDD+ demonstration activities. Progress on building the institutional capacity of countries to conduct forest inventories and other measurements for improving greenhouse gas inventories in forestry and other land use sectors has been slow in most non-Annex I countries. The above constraints can be overcome if coordinated, targeted investments are made and productive partnerships are developed between the technical services in REDD+ host countries, intergovernmental agencies and advanced research institutes in developed countries during the readiness phase.

Developing countries participating in the mitigation mechanism of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+), need to determine a national forest reference emission level (REL) as part of their national monitoring system, which serves as a benchmark to measure the impact of their REDD+ actions. Using data from Indonesia, we show that the choice of a forest definition can have a large impact on estimates of deforestation and forest degradation areas, on assessment of drivers of deforestation and on the development of a REL. The total area of deforestation between 2000 and 2009 was 4.9 million ha when using the FAO definition, 18% higher when using a 'natural forest definition' and 27% higher when using the national definition. Using the national and natural forest definitions, large areas (>50%) were classified as shrubland after deforestation. We used regression models to predict future deforestation. Deforestation was much better predicted than degradation (R-2 of 0.81 vs. 0.52), with the natural forest definition giving the best prediction. Apart from historical deforestation and initial forest cover, gross domestic product and human population were important predictors of future deforestation in Indonesia. Degradation processes were less well modeled and predictions relied on estimates of historical degradation and forest cover. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Countries are encouraged to identify drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in the development of national strategies and action plans for REDD+. In this letter we provide an assessment of proximate drivers of deforestation and forest degradation by synthesizing empirical data reported by countries as part of their REDD+ readiness activities, CIFOR country profiles, UNFCCC national communications and scientific literature. Based on deforestation rate and remaining forest cover 100 (sub)tropical non-Annex I countries were grouped into four forest transition phases. Driver data of 46 countries were summarized for each phase and by continent, and were used as a proxy to estimate drivers for the countries with missing data. The deforestation drivers are similar in Africa and Asia, while degradation drivers are more similar in Latin America and Asia. Commercial agriculture is the most important driver of deforestation, followed by subsistence agriculture. Timber extraction and logging drives most of the degradation, followed by fuelwood collection and charcoal production, uncontrolled fire and livestock grazing. The results reflect the most up to date and comprehensive overview of current national-level data availability on drivers, which is expected to improve over time within the frame of the UNFCCC REDD+ process.

River floodplains in the Netherlands serve as water storage areas, while they also have the function of nature rehabilitation areas. Floodplain vegetation is therefore subject to natural processes of vegetation succession. At the same time, vegetation encroachment obstructs the water flow into the floodplains and increases the flood risk for the hinterland. Spaceborne pointable imaging spectroscopy has the potential to quantify vegetation density on the basis of leaf area index (LAI) from a desired view zenith angle. In this respect, hyperspectral pointable CHRIS data were linked to the ray tracing canopy reflectance model FLIGHT to retrieve vegetation density estimates over a heterogeneous river floodplain. FLIGHT enables simulating top-of-canopy reflectance of vegetated surfaces either in turbid (e.g., grasslands) or in 3D (e.g., forests) mode. By inverting FLIGHT against CHRIS data, LAI was computed for three main classified vegetation types, ‘herbaceous’, ‘shrubs’ and ‘forest’, and for the CHRIS view zenith angles in nadir, backward (−36°) and forward (+36°) scatter direction. The −36° direction showed most LAI variability within the vegetation types and was best validated, closely followed by the nadir direction. The +36° direction led to poorest LAI retrievals. The class-based inversion process has been implemented into a GUI toolbox which would enable the river manager to generate LAI maps in a semiautomatic way.

Reference levels (RLs) are key points that determine the starting point of carbon credits payment within REDD+ framework. This work approaches the RLs using remote sensing data and analysis. Objectives of this study are: 1) mapping of forest cover change and 2) predicting carbon emissions/removals as a basis of RLs assessment. Forest cover change was estimated using national land cover map from the Ministry of Forestry in Indonesia. Combined with social economic parameters, deforestation drivers were analyzed to predict current/future deforestation. We elaborate available biomass data for predicting carbon density of each forest type and carbon biomass dynamics between 2000-2009. Hence, Riau Province was selected to conduct more detailed study. Relationship between deforestation, forest degradation, and carbon emissions/removals in this province were discussed.

Countries participating in REDD+ need to prepare to report on their forest carbon stocks changes. Remote sensing and forest inventories are key tools and data sources for monitoring but the capacities within non-Annex I countries needed for reporting to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) vary considerably. The purpose of this study was to assess the status and development of national monitoring capacities between 2005 and 2010 in tropical non-Annex I countries. Different global data sources were integrated for the comparative analysis of 99 countries. Indicators were derived for four main categories: national engagement in the REDD+ process, existing monitoring capacities, challenges with respect to REDD+ monitoring under particular national circumstances and technical challenges for the use of remote sensing. Very large capacity gaps were observed in forty nine countries, mostly in Africa, while only four countries had a very small capacity gap. These four countries show a net increase in forest area with 2513 ha x 1000 ha, while all other countries together have a forest loss of 8299 ha x 1000 ha in total. Modest improvements were observed over the last five years, especially with regard to carbon pool reporting. Based on the different circumstances and current capacities of each country, general recommendations are made for the design and planning of a national REDD+ forest monitoring system and for capacity development investments. The four countries with good capacities for both monitoring of forest area change and for performing regular forest inventories could have an important role in South-South capacity development. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.