Monitoring and Reporting

Countries are requested to identify drivers of deforestation and forest degradation resulting in emissions and the means to address these; to identify activities that result in reduced emissions and increased removals and stabilization of carbon stocks; and to establish robust and transparent national forest monitoring systems (or subnational monitoring systems as an interim measure). Such monitoring systems should use both remote sensing and ground-based approaches for estimating emissions and removals, forest carbon stocks and forest area changes; provide transparent, consistent, and accurate estimates; be transparent and their results available and suitable for measuring, reporting and verifying emissions and removals; build upon existing systems; enable the assessment of different types of forest, including natural forests (as defined by the country); be flexible and allow for improvement; reflect the phased-approach; and may provide relevant information for national safeguard information systems

In addition, developing countries should provide data and information used to estimate forest-related emissions and removals through a technical annex to biennial update reports to the UNFCCC. This is particularly true if a developing country is seeking to obtain and receive payments for results-based actions.

The assessment requires the development of a monitoring plan that defines what specific information is required, methods and responsibilities for information collection, and an assessment plan defining the process for preparation, review, approval and dissemination of the assessment report.  The report is reviewed by stakeholders, approved by a country-level multi-stakeholder committee and made publicly available. 

The design of a monitoring system is the responsibility of the applicant country or jurisdiction. Through REM's eligibility criteria, the applicant has to justify its approach which is then analysed in dialogue with REM and checked according to best practice criteria. 

The Joint Concept Note between Guyana and Norway recognized a Roadmap that would establish a Guyana Monitoring Reporting and Verification System (MRVS). According to the most recent (2012) MRVS Interim Measures Report, the objective is to “establish a comprehensive, national system to monitor, report and verify forest carbon emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation”. MRVS reports are made public and include progress on development of the MRVS system, forest and land cover datasets, monitoring and spatial datasets, image processing, forest change and GIS-based forest change mapping, degradation methodologies under development, interim measures related to MRV, verification measure (including accuracy assessment) and Quality Assurance / Quality Control processes.

A monitoring plan and reporting framework are included in each approved methodology.  Such plans can vary in both intervals required for monitoring and the parameters monitored. For example, some methodologies require annual monitoring of some parameters, while others only require monitoring every 10 years. Most include description of procedures used to estimate GHG emissions and removals, spatial data, plot data, allometric equations used, sampling procedure (if applicable), quality assurance and control measures, etc. Projects must complete a VCS Monitoring Report to undergo verification and request issuance of Verified Carbon Units (VCUs).

The Regulations define monitoring and reporting requirements, and the protocol further elaborates on requirements, based on the project type. Monitoring activities consist primarily of updating a project’s forest carbon inventory. ARB requires a complete inventory of carbon stocks to be reported each year. This complete inventory must be maintained and updated throughout the project life. Annual monitoring reports may be used as the basis for desk review verifications. However, verifiers must conduct site visits and more in-depth reviews of project data at least every six years. Monitoring is required for a period of 100 years following the final issuance of any ARB or registry offset credits to an offset project to guarantee permanence requirements.