Remote Sensing Protocols for Forest Carbon Measurement and Monitoring: Enhancement baseline and ex ante protocol

The Forest-PLUS Program, led by TetraTech ARD, aimed to develop remote sensing protocols for forest carbon measurement and monitoring. The program's technical team from Michigan State University (MSU) led the development of the five remote sensing protocols supported by IORA. Each protocol is published as a single document. The five remote sensing protocols are designed to support forest carbon measurement, monitoring, and reporting at the Tier 3 level. Protocols three and four focus on carbon sequestration in forests from enhancement. The final protocol is on trees outside of forests (ToF) and agroforestry. Tier 3 inventories are advanced systems using measurements and modeling to improve the estimation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals beyond what is possible with Tier 1 or 2 systems. The 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 4, Chapter 4, page 2, provide further information on Tier 3 inventories. Protocol 3: Enhancement Baseline and Ex Ante Protocol This protocol defines the data, analyses, and reporting required to estimate a baseline reference of carbon removals from forest enhancement. The protocol references tools within the Forest-PLUS Data Management System (DMS) toolkit to support specific protocol tasks. The protocol for estimating carbon removals from forest enhancement follows standard procedures and methods used by the IPCC, Winrock International/USA, US Forest Service, and Michigan State University. The protocol references the following documents as sources: * IPCC 2006, Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry * IPCC 2006, IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, Volume 4, AFoLum * MacDicken, K.G. 1997, A Guide to Monitoring Carbon Storage in Forestry and Agroforestry Projects, Winrock International * Pear et al. 2005, Measurement Guidelines for the Sequestration of Forest Carbon, US Forest Service, Technical Report NR-18 * Pear et al. 2005, Integrating Carbon Benefits into GEF Projects, Global Environment Facility * ANSAB 2010, Guidelines for Measuring Carbon Stocks in Community Managed Forests, Asia The protocol defines project boundary, project stratification, sample plot design, activity data, emission factors, and the project baseline sequestration. The protocol also defines the project's historical period of analysis and the project's baseline sequestration.