Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses

REDD+ relevance

Used in national greenhouse gas inventories, the AFOLU category combines two previously distinct sectors LULUCF (Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry) and Agriculture. Both sectors were integrated in the previous IPCC Guidelines into one sector called Agriculture Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) to improve the general consistency and completeness of the national inventories. The structure of 6 land use categories under LULUCF was retained. AFOLU accounts for more than 30% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (IPCC, 2007).

Under the VCS, AFOLU projects fall under the following categories: Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation (ARR), Agricultural Land Management (ALM), Improved Forest Management (IFM), Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD), Avoided Conversion of Grasslands and Shrublands (ACoGS),Wetlands Restoration and Conservation (WRC) (VCS website). The VCS hold the majority market share of AFOLU projects, with CDM in second place (EcoSystem Marketplace, 2012).

Eligible VCS REDD activities are Avoiding Planned Deforestation and/or Degradation (APDD), and Avoiding Unplanned Deforestation and/or Degradation (AUDD). The VCS REDD Methodology Module (REDD-MF, v1.4) is applicable to forest lands that would be deforested or degraded in the absence of the project activity; however there are no modules included for activities to reduce emissions from forest degradation caused by illegal harvesting of trees for timber (VCS, 2013).