An introduction to the monitoring of forestry carbon sequestration projects Developing Forestry and Bioenergy Projects within CDM Ecuador March, 2004 Igino M. Emmer PhD Face Foundation

F orests A bsorbing C arbon dioxide E mission

Overview of the Face projects

Contents Introduction Basic principles of carbon monitoring in forests

Introduction What is carbon monitoring in forests? Forest carbon monitoring quantifies changes in carbon stocks in various carbon pools of the forest by repeated measurement

Why carbon monitoring? -Transparency and credibility -Verification (see project cycle) -Compliance versus voluntary

COP 9 IPCC GPG LULUCF Large versus small-scale projects

Monitoring plan Contents (CDM EB): -GHG baseline and with-project -Archiving -Nature and quality of methodologies -Remedial measures for negative impacts This introduction: carbon monitoring in CDM AR

Good Practice Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry -Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories -National inventories and projects Winrock International and others

Basic principles of carbon monitoring First considerations for planning Data requirements Tools for data collection Carbon calculations Leakage, risks and uncertainties

First considerations for planning Greenhouse gasses involved Baseline versus with-project scenario Required frequency Availability of expertise Costs

Greenhouse gasses involved CO 2 (1 CO 2 e) CH 4 (23 CO 2 e) N 2 O (296 CO 2 e)

Baseline versus with-project scenario Baseline may become counterfactual Plot selection Modelling

Required frequency Lomax: lowest cost/effort, maximum result Carbon monitoring vs research CDM AR: 5-year intervals Just before verification Statistics -Stock changes versus variability

Stock changes versus variability

High variability + small average change: large sample size

Pre-defined precision and accuracy Precision: e.g. measuring a stem diameter Accuracy: assessing the carbon stored in the forest Can be found in the IPCC GPG LULUCF

Availability of expertise: fields Forestry, terrain knowledge Sampling design and statistics Logistics Supervision and quality control

Costs Labour intensive, time consuming: may easily become expensive Lomax -Pre-monitoring intelligence -Pilot sampling Relation with market price of CO 2 e (end of considerations)

Data requirement 50% of biomass is carbon (C) Carbon pools -Above-ground biomass -Below-ground biomass -Soil carbon -Litter

Pools to be involved In principle all carbon pools within the project boundary must be considered Only if transparent and verifiable information is provided, pools that are shown not to be a source may be excluded from the monitoring

Above-ground biomass

allometric biomass regression equation: B = a + b * D 2 * H where B: biomass (kg) D: stem diameter (cm) at breast height (1.3 m) H: total height (m) a-b: regression parameters from the data, depending on tree species and site conditions

Below-ground biomass Average below-ground to above-ground ratio for tropical, boreal and temperate forest (IPCC) = 0.26 Varying little among latitudes (boreal-temperate- tropical) or soil texture IPCC guidelines: ‘given the lack of standard methods and the time-consuming nature of monitoring below- ground biomass in forests, it is good practice to estimate below-ground biomass from either estimated aboveground biomass based on various equations or from locally derived data’

Soil carbon A general formula for calculating soil organic carbon: SOC = [SOC] * BulkDensity * Volume * (1-CoarsFragments) where SOC: soil carbon stock (Mg C/ha) [SOC]: concentration of soil carbon (g C/kg) BulkDensity (Mg/m 3 ) CoarseFragments: fraction in %

Tools for data collection Good monitoring depends on An adequate land classification scheme An appropriate spatial and temporal resolution A proper standard for precision and accuracy A transparent methodology Measures to assure consistency and availability over time

Remote sensing Air photography Satellite imagery Radar

Ground-based surveys; sampling design Ground-based surveys require field visits for measuring selected attributes The way these attributes are measured in terms of ‘how many times’ and ‘where’ is the sampling design The sampling design must -prevent any bias in measurements -allow for efficient execution of the work -allow for independent verification

Sampling design Complete enumeration Simple random sampling Systematic sampling Stratified random sampling Precision, Accuracy, Lomax

Sampling unit Plot (permanent or temporary) Pre-defined constant area (tonnes C/ha) Permanent plots: -Better quantification of stock changes -Independent verification

Sample grid

Sample size versus precision level

Equipment

Carbon calculations Carbon stocks Sample size Time intervals

Other issues Leakage -Monitoring within project boundaries Risks and uncertainties -Assessment -Mitigation