ABSTRACT
National REDD+ programmes intending to trade carbon credits, either on a global market or to international carbon funds, are going to require large amounts of data on forest conditions and changes in these conditions over time. The fact that international REDD+ policy and the associated rules of the game have not yet been agreed upon makes it uncertain exactly what data will be required. However, it is clear that a national approach to REDD+ will have very different data implications from a project approach. Countries will only be able to claim on improvements compared to an agreed reference emissions level (REL), or benchmark averaged over the whole forested territory. This means that data on forest stock changes will be required for the entire area of the country defined for the purposes of REDD+ as forest, not merely in those areas where REDD+ activities are being implemented. Countries will be keen to target action towards those areas where reductions in forest biomass loss are most cost-effective. This requires spatially differentiated data on drivers, on opportunity costs and on probable biomass growth rates, very little of which is currently available in most countries. At best, data are patchy and anecdotal. Nevertheless, that is the point from which national REDD+ programmes are going to have to take off.
