VCS-JNR: Lessons learned and suggestions

Lucio Pedroni

Baselines and Monitoring: Experience from Ecuador and Peru

Lucio Pedroni - lpedroni@carbondecisions.com

C A R B O N D E C I S I O N S I N T E R N A T I O N A L

South-South Jurisdictional and Nested

REDD+ (JNR) Exchange Workshop

Manaus (Brasil), 13-15 June, 2013 ®

A consulting firm specialized in the development of forest carbon assets and forest management.

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ARR

IFM

REDD+

CDM

CCBS VCS

JNR

Argentina Brazil

Colombia Costa Rica Ecuador Ghana

Guatemala Guyana

Honduras Indonesia

Madagascar Mexico

Nicaragua Peru

Senegal Tanzania Indonesia

Ecuador Ecuador • REL and MRV are being

developed at the national level under the leadership of the Ministry of Environment (MAE).

• Envisioned national approach to REDD+ is similar to VCS-JNR Scenario 3.

• National REDD+ program started implementation in 2009 (with “Programa Socio-Bosque”).

• Intention to apply consistent national methodologies for MRV and REL.

• Interest in bilateral agreements for performance payments.

Ecuador MRV:

• Activity data:

– Three national land cover maps (1990, 2000, 2008): 3 points in time, but 1990 is more than 10 years behind.

– Some areas with clouds and shadows (“unknown areas” are not categorized as “forest” or “no-forest” and are excluded form accounting).

– Scope: “deforestation” (REDD+).

– Plan to measure deforestation wall-to-wall every 2nd year, starting in 2014.

• Carbon stocks:

– National inventory almost completed.

National Forest Evaluation: plots measured in forest land

Paso 4. Creación de un Mapa de Densidades de Carbono (MDC)

National Forest Evaluation: plots measured in no-forest land

Ecuador REL:

• A national methodology based on VCS–JNR (and VM0015) has been developed and will be submitted to independent review.

• Scope: only deforestation for the period 2009-2014. More activities (degradation, enhancement) may be included in the second period (2015-2020).

• Reference activity data for the period 2009-2014: – Average area deforested between 2000–2008. – Calculated separately for 14 AHDPs (“Areas of

Homogeneous Deforestation Processes”).

AHDPs • Criteria:

- Agents and drivers; - Land-use; - Availability of

unused non-forest land;

- Level of historical deforestation.

• AHDPs are not jurisdictions.

Pilot REL developed for AHDP-1

REL:

• Projected activity data adjusted according to VCS-JNR requirements: – Natural disturbances (> 1,000 ha, return frequency > 10

years). – Large infrastructure projects (> 1,000 ha) – Large-scale commercial projects (if > 10% of historical

deforestation projection is not spatially explicit).

• Unplanned deforestation and planned deforestation (large infrastructure projects) is spatially projected (30x30 m resolution) using a modeling tool (Dinamica Ego).

• The national REL is disaggregated at the levels of Canton, Province and AHD.

Ecuador

REL: • Emission factors:

– Carbon stock of forests from field measurements (> 600 plots of the National Forest Evaluation).

– Carbon stocks of post-deforestation land uses: default values from IPCC tables and (very soon) from field measurements. Calculated as the area-weighted average of land-uses established on areas deforested between 1990-2000 (one average value per AHDP).

– Conservative adjustments of the estimated average carbon stocks to account for uncertainty (according to VCS-JNR requirements).

– Default carbon stock decrease functions according to VCS-AFOLU (for carbon pools that are not emitted immediately).

– Default carbon stock increase functions according to VM0015 (for post-deforestation land uses).

Ecuador

Peru • RELs are being established

at the sub-national level: - Madre de Dios (8.52 Mha) - San Martin (5.16 Mha) - Selva Central (10.36 Mha) - Cusco (6.60 Mha)

• Peru will most likely adopt a an approach similar to VCS-JNR scenario 2.

• National government currently working on carbon stock map and historical deforestation data.

• REDD+ initiatives are mostly civil society lead initiatives.

• San Martin is probably the most advanced sub-national JNR initiative.

San Martin (Peru): • Since 2010 proponents of

nested projects and the regional government are working together (MINAM observing) to develop and register a REL (VCS-JNR Scenario 1).

• REL now developed following VCS-JNR (methodology similar to the one described for Ecuador).

• Challenges:

- High % of “unknown areas”.

- Data (carbon stocks, activity data) and methodologies still not available at the national level.

- National endorsement or non-objection.

Common Challenges (related to MRV and RELs)

1. Institutional capacities.

2. Slow decision-making at the political level.

3. Choosing a “VCS-JNR Scenario” (1, 2 or 3).

4. Defining and adopting MRV and REL methodologies.

5. Generation of new and/or use of existing information on carbon stocks and activity data.

6. Complying with many international requirements (IPCC, UNFCCC, bilateral and multilateral processes and agreements, VCS-JNR, Safeguards).

7. Demands of the civil society and indigenous organizations.

8. Long-term adoption at the political and institutional levels.

Opportunities (related to MRV and RELs)

1. Durban´s stepwise approach: start working with existing data and methodologies, using conservative approaches (instead of looking for the perfect data and methodologies and delaying the process).

2. Testing VCS-JNR requirements and adjust the jurisdictional plans and the VCS-JNR requirements as needed.

3. Test VCS-JNR requirements in the context of bilateral and multilateral initiatives in order to align key international REDD+ players on methodological approaches and basic rules for JNR.

4. Contribute to the development of user-friendly methodologies, protocols and tools.

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