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Monitoring and Verifying GHG Benefits of Forestry & Agriculture Projects
In order to ensure that a forestry or agricultural project is achieving real and credible benefits, carbon sequestration and/or emissions reductions should be properly estimated or measured, and monitored over time.
There are not yet any standard methods or guidelines to account for, monitor and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits of sequestration projects. Work is underway within the U.S. Government and by others to develop methods.
References on work exploring different monitoring and verification methods:
The papers and links listed below are provided for information and discussion. The opinions and findings expressed in the information below do not necessarily represent those of the Environmental Protection Agency.
General/Overview references:
- IPCC Special Report on LULUCF (2000), Chapter 5 section on Measuring,
Accounting, Monitoring and Verifying GHG Benefits.
- Post,
W.M., R.C. Izaurralde, L.K. Mann and N. Bliss (2000) Monitoring and
Verifying Changes of Organic Carbon in Soil. CDIAC Communications.
(PDF, 20 pp., 630 KB, About
PDF)
- Vine, E., J. Sathaye and W. Makundi (1999) Guidelines for the Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, Verification, and Certification of Forestry Projects for Climate Change Mitigation. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA.
More specific references:
Note: All the below links will take you outside the
EPA Web site.
- CASMGS Fall
Forum 2003: Measuring and Monitoring Carbon
- Brown,
S. (2002) Measuring carbon in forests: current status and future
challenges.
Environmental Pollution, 116(3):
363-372.(PDF, 10 pp., 186 KB, About
PDF)
- Subak,
S. (2002) Forest certification eligibility as a screen for CDM sinks
projects. Climate Policy, 2(4):
335-351.
- Brown, S. (1999) Guidelines for Inventorying and Monitoring Carbon Offsets in Forest-Based Projects. Prepared for the World Bank.