Monitoring of Carbon Abatement in Forestry Projects - Case Study of Western Ghat Project

Background

The forestry sector is increasingly being turned to as a means to address greenhouse gases, particularly in the tropics. Due to this, it is critical to conduct monitoring that measures, records, and verifies the amount of carbon sequestered or emmissions avoided through these forestry schemes. 

Goals & Methods

This paper aims to outline required parameters to be evaluated for estimating carbon flows, potential monitoring methods, and institution arrangements. Along with drawing on various resources including research and previously implemented projects to construct these parameters, the paper also provides a review of a current carbon sequestration project, the Western Ghat Forestry and Environment project

Conclusions & Takeaways

The study calls for parameters to measures include measure include: Vegetation carbon density, soil carbon density, litter / slash carbon density, carbon sequestration, area data, wood harvest and end use, and root biomass density. These are in addition to the ones that are typically monitored for any forest project, such as regeneration and survival rates, changes in biodiversity, growth rates of woody biomass, production and extraction of timber and NTFPs, changes in soil carbon or organic matter content, costs and benefits. The study concludes stating that projects should designate a significant portion of their budget toward monitoring - in this case study, the budget for monitoring was 10% of the overall project budget and local institutions should be included in monitoring and if possible on-the-ground technicians should come from local areas