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Narration: In this presentation you will learn about some quick steps for measuring and monitoring

carbon stocks in a forestry project and will look at some examples of tools that are available for doing

so.

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Narration: The presentation is divided into two main sections.

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Narration: This slide presents the main steps for measuring and monitoring carbon stocks in a forestry

project.

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Narration: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change defines five carbon pools for measuring and

monitoring purposes: above-ground biomass; dead wood; litter; below-ground biomass; and soil carbon.

From the IPCC GPG (2003) = Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry

The document:

Penman, J., Gytarsky, M., Hiraishi, T., Krug, T., Kruger, D., Pipatti, R., Buendia, L., Miwa, K., Ngara, T.,

Tanabe, K. and Wagner, F. 2003. Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry.

IPCC National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme and Institute for Global Environmental

Strategies (IGES), Kanagawa, Japan. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Available at: http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/public/gpglulucf/gpglulucf_contents.htm

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Narration: Which carbon pools should be measured and monitored? Measure and monitor only those C

pools that are changing considerably due to proposed CDM activity or REDD scheme and can be

measured and monitored cost-efficiently. Under CDM rules, if a pool becomes a source (emission) due to

project activity, it has to be measured, monitored, and reported. In REDD, there is no decision on this yet.

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Narration: Trees account for 60 to 90 per cent of the total aboveground biomass, the largest pool. It is therefore important that these pools are measured. And it is important to get this right, since the highest proportion of total aboveground biomass is in tree stems. It is also the easiest pool to measure and monitor, because data and models are available. For carbon pools that are difficult or costly to measure, such as belowground biomass like roots, use robust allometric models based on aboveground biomass. Other pools can be estimated conservatively from literature. For example, dead wood is usually up to about 15 per cent of AGB, and understory is usually up to about 5 per cent.

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Narration: The project baseline aims to answer the question What would happen without the project? It

is the scenario of anthropogenic emissions by sources or anthropogenic removals by sinks of greenhouse

gases that would occur without the proposed project. In other words, it is the sum of the changes in

carbon stocks in the carbon pools within the project boundary that would have occurred without the

CDM or REDD project.

The graph on the left represents a reforestation project case with two baselines and the project case.

The two baselines could be degraded pasture as shown by baseline 1 and natural revegetation of

abandoned pasture as shown by baseline 2.

The graph on the right represents a deforestation project case with two baselines and the project case.

The two baselines could be a deforestation scenario calculated with projected historical data as shown

by baseline 1 and deforestation scenario calculated with economic and demographic modes as shown by

baseline 2.

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Narration: To estimate the changes in carbon pools, also called carbon stocks, use existing equations and default values to calculate the changes in the carbon stocks before the project started to create estimations and projections of the potential of the project in the future. Next, develop a measuring and monitoring protocol for the carbon pools that include stratification of the project area to improve the accuracy and precision of biomass estimates; sampling design; definition of data and parameters to be monitored; and methods to be used and frequency of monitoring.

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Narration: Additionality aims to answer the question What would happen without the project activity? Leakage, also called displacement of emissions, is a situation where the implementation of project activities in one place lead to an increase of emissions in another adjacent area.

When talking about carbon benefits and climate change impacts, the question on additionality should be: How much carbon is being sequestered as a direct result of the project activity?

When talking about policies and programmes, ask: What would happen without the project? In other words, what are the existing plans, programmes and policies? Why we need CDM or REDD to make this to happen? In terms of investments, the questions are: what is the actual financing available? Why do we need additional funding? Is the funding coming from “traditional” development assistance or is this “new and additional” funding?

An example of leakage is a situation where we observe increased deforestation outside the province X caused by relocation of human settlements due to REDD activity in the province X.

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Narration: In the following slides you will see some examples of carbon accounting methods.

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Narration: The IPCC Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry methods allow for inventories with different levels of complexity, called tiers. In general, inventories using higher tiers are more accurate and less uncertain. There is a trade-off, however, as the complexity and resources required for conducting inventories also increase for higher tiers. A combination of tiers can be used. For example, Tier 2 can be used for biomass and Tier 1 for soil carbon, depending on data availability and the magnitude of expected changes in the pool.

Tier 1 methods are designed to be simple to use. The IPCC guidelines provide equations and default parameter values, such as emission and stock change factors, so the person compiling the inventory does not need specific data for these elements of the equations. Country-specific land use and management data are needed, but for Tier 1 there are often globally available sources for these estimates, such as deforestation rates, agricultural production statistics, global land cover maps, fertiliser use, or livestock population data. The Tier 1 method is unlikely to be sufficient for crediting under REDD.

Tier 2 uses the same methodological approach as Tier 1, but the emission and stock change factors are based on country or region-specific data. Country-defined emission factors are more appropriate for the climatic regions and land use systems in the country or region. Higher temporal and spatial resolution, and more disaggregated land-use and management categories are used in Tier 2 to correspond with country-defined coefficients for specific regions and specialised land use categories.

For Tier 3, higher order methods are used, including models and inventory measurement systems tailored to address unique national circumstances. Assessments are repeated over time and employ high-resolution land use and management data, which are generally disaggregated at sub-national level. These inventories use advanced measurements and modeling systems to improve the estimation of greenhouse gas emissions and removals beyond what is possible with Tier 1 or 2 approaches. Usually, CDM afforestation and reforestation projects use Tier 3 approaches.

Tiers are levels of complexity and detail.• Tier 1: Defaults given in the Guidelines• Tier 2: Same method as Tire 1 but use nationally specific data. May have more stratification and can account for abatement• Tier 3: More sophisticated and detailed modeling approaches – results compatible with Tier 1 & 2.• In general GPG inventories need Tier 2 or 3 for key categories NOT Tier 1• IPCC Guidelines focus on Tier 1

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Narration: In stratification the total area to be measured is divided into homogeneous units.

Stratification allows researchers to obtain precise estimations at a lower cost than without stratification.

First, the area is divided into homogenous groups. Then monitoring, including sampling and calculations,

is applied to each strata separately and the results are compiled at the end.

Potential stratification options include:

• Land use, such as forest, plantation, agroforestry, grassland, cropland, or irrigated cropland;

• Vegetation species if there are several

• Slope, whether it is steep or flat

• Drainage, whether it is flooded or dry

• The age of the vegetation

• The proximity to settlement.

Typically, a project might have between one and six strata.

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Narration: This graph shows an example of traditional growth and yield tables developed for forest

plantations. The data measured and registered annually includes tree age, tree height, stem diameter,

number of trees living, basal area of the stems, and stem volume. The graph on the right shows the

development of tree height as a function of tree age.

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Narration: When using growth and yield tables for estimating the carbon content the following steps are needed:• Measure the stem diameter of the trees or estimate them if you are doing ex ante • Obtain the total volume of the stand from volume tables or from volume equations• Convert stem volumes to stem biomass by using conversion factors. Or use allometric equations to calculate the total tree biomass from the stem biomass. Or use allometric equations to estimate total tree biomass directly from stem diameter • Convert biomass and carbon by using a conversion factor, usually 0.50

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Narration: Allometry is the study of the relative growth relationships between different parts of an

organism. It is mathematically expressed by the allometric equation between a predicted variable, such

as the volume of the tree stem, and an observed variable, such as the stem diameter. In forestry,

allometric models have been used for estimating the volume of tree stems by measuring stem diameter

and tree height. These models are often called volume equations or volume tables.

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Narration: This is an example of a maple-beech-birch reforestation project in the northeast United

States. It shows the development of mean stand volume and carbon pools as a function of stand age.

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Narration: Using the table from the previous slide, calculate the following:What is the carbon stock in living trees at ages 25 and 45 years? What is the net carbon stock change over this interval?What is the total carbon stock of the five IPCC pools (see slide 3) at the age of 55?

Answers:

1) What is the carbon stock in living trees at ages of 25 and 45 years? What is the net carbon stock change over this interval?• Carbon stocks in living trees are 53.2 and 87.8 t/ha for years 25 and 45, respectively (previous slide)• Net annual stock change = (87.8 – 53.2) / 20 = 1.7 t/ha/yr

2) What is the total carbon stock of the five IPCC pools (see slide 3) at the age of 55?• Above-ground biomass: 142.7 (total nonsoil)• Below-ground biomass: N.A.• Dead wood: 14.5 t/ha (standing dead tree + down dead wood)• Litter: we don’t know, because in the above table “forest floor” = litter + humus + fine roots in the organic layer above mineral soil.

In the IPCC definition fine roots are part of “below-ground biomass”• Soil carbon: 69.6 t/ha (soil organic)• Total carbon stock in the table of he previous slide: 212.2 t/ha (nonsoil+soil)

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Narration: The USAID/Winrock International Forest Carbon Calculator combines global datasets on

carbon biomass, deforestation, tree growth rates, impacts of forest management, forest protection,

reforestation and afforestation, forest management, agroforestry. The calculation method used in the

calculator is not a full IPCC Tier 3 analysis, but it is better than Tier 2 in many cases. The tool offers a

simple way to quickly estimate the CO2 benefits of forestry projects.

The USAID Forest Carbon Calculator is available on-line at: http://winrock.stage.datarg.net

In this tool box, there is a separate, detailed presentation of the USAID Forest Carbon Calculator (see

Topic 4, Section D).

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Narration: Here are two examples of outputs from carbon models.

On the left is the output of a CO2FIX model calculating carbon benefits of a reforestation project in

southwestern Romania. The baseline is degraded grassland. It is assumed that if current management

would continue, the production of the grass would decrease by 25 per cent in 100 years, and 33 per cent

in 200 years. The project case is a Robinia plantation on sandy soils. Initially, 5000 seedlings per hectare

were planted. The rotation period is 30 years. In both baseline and project cases, the model calculates

the carbon in trees and in the soil.

On the right, the graph illustrates the output of model calculations for carbon sequestration in the

Moldova Soil Conservation Project calculated with the CO2FIX model. The baseline is degraded

grassland. The main project activity is carbon sequestration through afforestation of degraded

agricultural lands with trees of the genera Querqus, Populus, and Robinia. The small graph on the left

graph shows per hectare carbon accumulation in tree biomass. The graph on the right shows per hectare

carbon accumulation in soils. The graph on the bottom shows normal, best and worst scenarios for

carbon sequestration of the total project area, which is 19.8 thousand hectares.

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