Measuring and monitoring forest degradation for REDD : implications of country circumstances

Forest degradation is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. In the Brazilian Amazon it is responsible for 20 per cent of total emissions (Asner et al. 2005). In Indonesia, the forest stock is decreasing by a rate of six per cent a year, only one-third of which is due to deforestation (Marklund and Schoene 2006). In Africa, the annual rate of degradation is almost 50 per cent of the deforestation rate (Lambin et al. 2003). In 2007, the Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) acknowledged the importance of degradation and included it in the proposed mechanism for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD). Addressing degradation has other important benefits, since it reduces the forest’s capacity to adapt to climate change and their ability to provide ecosystem and livelihood services.