Woods Hole Research Center

As the negotiation process for REDD continues along the roadmap set at COP13 in Bali in December 2007, there is a pressing need for information about how much REDD will cost, how it will benefit indigenous peoples, and whether it is possible to accurately monitor forests on a time scale that is meaningful for economic mechanisms.

Presentations and discussions on REDD were featured in the Woods Hole Research Center’s side event at COP14.

As part of the work leading up to COP14 in Poznan, the Woods Hole Research Center released 4 reports that provide further insight into these issues:

Mapping and Monitoring Carbon Stocks with Satellite Observations: An Update

A range of publications have widely discussed and documented the monitoring requirements for REDD, and the general consensus of these discussions is that monitoring of forest cover change using satellite remote sensing is practical and feasible for determining baseline deforestation rates against which future rates of change can be based, provided that adequate validation and accuracy assessments are conducted and documented. Much discussion concerns about the type of monitoring and baseline approach used. Methods to map and monitor forest degradation have also been developed, while on the other hand, mapping and monitoring of carbon stocks has been widely and routinely regarded as beyond the current capability of satellite remote sensing technology, primarily because most of the research on this topic has focused on field sampling approaches. But it is clearly problematic to map carbon stocks over large areas without satellite data. This paper gives an overview of the potential for satellites to measure biomass and a range of approaches that have been developed and used for carbon stock mapping across a diverse set of conditions and geographic areas.

An Overview of Readiness for REDD - A compilation of readiness activities prepared on behalf of the Forum on Readiness for REDD

The Woods Hole Research Center, acting as the secretariat for the Forum, agreed to collect information on readiness activities taking place in developing countries and assemble a background document that would allow interested stakeholders to get a snapshot of readiness activities taking place both globally and in their country or region, as a way to highlight potential gaps and synergies and encourage collaboration and partnerships in all facets of readiness efforts. This background document aims to provide a snapshot view of readiness activities around the world.

Forest carbon monitoring and landscape modeling in support of REDD: The Xingu River headwaters of the SE Amazon

Although REDD has emerged as one of the most exciting components of climate negotiations, there is still a lack of concrete experiences on the ground to put REDD into practice at a scale beyond the “project”-level. Reliable and robust forest carbon monitoring programs and effective processes for engaging stakeholders are crucial for REDD programs’ success. This context presents approaches to forest carbon monitoring and policy-relevant modeling in support of stakeholder processes for the Xingu headwaters region in the southeastern Amazon basin.

How to Distribute REDD Funds Across Countries? A Stock-Flow Mechanism

If a REDD mechanism is approved, funds will have to be distributed independently of whether the adopted mechanism is market-based or fund-based. This paper, after briefly reviewing existing proposals for REDD mechanisms to provide incentives to curb emissions from deforestation, introduces a new approach, Stock-Flow mechanism, based on an analogy between carbon and the returns on a financial stock. Functioning by negotiating a common price paid to avoid emissions from deforestation, and the remaining funds are distributed as dividend per ton of standing carbon stock to avoid leakage, this approach has the advantage of providing intuitive incentives and having a clear economic rationale. Other advantages are well discussed in the paper, as well as a simple example, which helps explain how REDD funds are distributed based on this approach.