Role of remote sensing and community forestry to manage forests for the effective implementation of REDD+ mechanism: a case study on Cambodia

By Ram Avtar, Haruo Sawada and Pankaj Kumar

Environment, Development and Sustainability (March 2013)

In this study, we have shown the importance of remote sensing applications and community forestry for forest management, discussed as a case study on Cambodian forest management. Curbing deforestation is necessary for the effective implementation of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forests Degradation (REDD+) mechanism and management of forest resources to support sustainable forest management plans. The updated information of the forest cover and forest biomass using advanced remote sensing techniques can be useful for selecting the suitable sites for planned thinning, reforestation, community forestry, and concession land, which eventually will help in controlling the deforestation in Cambodia. To overcome the limitations of remote sensing, an integrated approach of remote sensing and community forestry to monitor forests from local to national level has also been discussed.

 Credit: http://www.globalcanopy.org/

Paper source: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10668-013-9448-y

What are PES? A review of definitions and an extension

Sandra Derissen and Uwe Latacz-Lohmann

 Ecosystem Services (Available online 13 March 2013)

The term PES is often used to denote market incentives for the provision of public goods within the field of environmental and resource issues. In this context, PES translates into either ‘payments for environmental services’ or ‘payments for ecosystem services’—the terms that are not consistently defined in the literature and sometimes used as synonyms. Given the lack of coherent definitions, this note reviews current definitions of payments for ecosystem services and payments for environmental services entertained in the literature, discusses alternative meanings of environmental and ecosystem services in the PES context, and finally proposes a consistent definition. We argue that current definitions of PES found in the literature are insufficient to adequately describe the man-made nature of many environmental goods and services: that nature is ’produced’ through human intervention. Building upon the FAO's definition of environmental services, we propose a definition that regards environmental services as services provided through countryside management in a broader sense whilst produced either unintentionally or intentionally.

Credit: http://www.psmag.com/business-economics/mother-nature-s-sum-4226/

Paper Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212041613000119 

Local Community Engagement in an early stage of REDD+ project development: Lessons Learned from Siem Reap Community Forestry REDD+ project in Cambodia

Donal Yeang*, Samnang Khiev**, Channa Net**, Delux Chhun***, Julien Brewster** and Kirtiman Sherchan*

* Fauna & Flora International-Cambodia Programme, #19, Street 360, Phnom Penh, Cambodia 

** Pact Cambodia, Phnom Penh Center, Suite 300, Building A, Phnom Penh, Cambodia 

*** Forestry Administration, # 40, Preah Norodom Blvd., Phnom Penh, Cambodia 

Paper Presented at The Cambodian AgriNatura Research Workshop on:
Integrated Agriculture and Natural Resource Management for Sustainable Development

4 January 2013, Royal University of Agriculture, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+) is a policy mechanism which aims to reduce carbon dioxide emission from developing countries through forest conservation, sustainable forest management and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. Even though the discussion on the precise design of the future REDD+ mechanism is still ongoing under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), REDD+ demonstration projects are being planned and implemented across the tropics, particularly in countries with high forest cover and high deforestation rates. Implementation challenges include measuring, reporting and verifying (MRV) forest area change, carbon stocks and the social and environmental impacts of REDD+ projects. Community based MRV can help to overcome some of these challenges. The author conducted interviews with local communities and key stakeholders in Siem Reap Community Forestry REDD+ project. The analysis was complemented by participant observation and a review of policy documents and secondary literature. The paper shows that local communities can help to measure forest carbon stock and gather social and environmental data for REDD+ project design and development. The local communities can only perform a basic measurement of biomass stock parameters in the sample plots such as circumference at breast height, standing and down deadwood, tree stump while the knowledge and skill of utilization of a Global Positioning System (GPS) and compass are still limited. The household survey to gather socioeconomic information regarding the use of natural resources of individual household could be conducted by the local community members who can read and write. In conclusion, engaging and empowering local communities in an early REDD+ project development could build a sense of trust and responsibility that local communities have towards the project. In addition, community based MRV could provide a rapid and cost-effective ways to gather relevant information for REDD+ project development.

Biomass Inventory in Bos Thom Community Forest