Transparent monitoring in practice: Supporting post-Paris land use sector mitigation

Transparent Monitoring (TM) can help developing countries improve monitoring of land use emissions and better assess mitigation actions. The project developed guidance for TM, on how to implement open-source tools and open-access datasets and how to improve data access in four countries. In Côte d’Ivoire, the project developed guidance for assessing mitigation along cocoa supply chains to assist an effective and transparent accounting. In Ethiopia, it integrated open-source tools, data and TM principles into the national MRV system to improve the assessment of biomass following land use change and participation of local communities. In Papua New Guinea, it analyzed the adoption of open data, data accessibility policies and the improvement in participation of indigenous peoples and local communities in MRV. In Peru, it developed guidance toward an interactive near-real-time forest change monitoring system linked to a national incentive system for forest-related mitigation.

Project data

Countries: Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, Peru
IKI funding: 2,977,095.00 €
Duration: 11/2020 till 12/2024
Status: completed
Implementing organisation: Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Political Partner: Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission (EFCCC) - Ethiopia

Ministry of Environment (MINAM) - Peru

Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development - Ivory Coast

Papua New Guinea Forest Authority (PNGFA) - Papua New Guinea
Implementing Partner: Wageningen University

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)

National Wildlife Federation (NWF)

Öko-Institut e.V.
Online: http://www.transparentmonitoring.org

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State of implementation/results

Project completed.
Presentation of public relations activities:
- Presentation at a poster session at the IPCC Expert Meeting on Reconciling Land Use Emission in Ispra (Italy) in July 2024. – The project was presented at CIFORS’s official COP 28 side event (www.cifor-icraf.org/…)
- The project website - www.transparentmonitoring.org - introduces the concepts of Transparency Monitoring, and informs about recent activities and progress.
- The project presented its compilation of apps, information, and guidance on community-based monitoring (CBM) on a digital knowledge platform to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
Papers published:
- Alert-driven Community-based forest monitoring: A case of the Peruvian Amazon (www.mdpi.com/…)
- Using High-Resolution Imagery and Deep Learning to Classify Land-Use Following Deforestation: A Case Study in Ethiopia (www.tandfonline.com/…)
Information regarding measurable project achievements:
- Two working sessions were held digitally and a meeting with the steering board. Initial reports for each of the countries - evaluating the starting situation – were finalized.
Côte d’Ivoire
- The EU's regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR) has spurred national-level efforts for transparent monitoring and traceability in the cocoa sector.
- A cocoa data visualization tool was developed to provide access to open data on a Geo-Wiki platform. A dataset, highlighting overlapping and conflicting maps, was created to fill gaps in cocoa data availability.
- A synthesis workshop on May 15th, 2024, in Abidjan, gathered civil society to align on best practices for EUDR implementation; key stakeholders in the cocoa value chain have taken ownership of transparent monitoring mechanisms and are aware of the EUDR and national tools for due diligence; and provided feedback.
- The project team followed invitations to speak and participate in the EU Cocoa Talks, organized by the DG Environment, and engaged there with many stakeholders in the Cocoa value chain.
Ethiopia
- Monitoring drivers of deforestation involved identifying land-use/deforestation drivers in Ethiopia, developing a deep learning model to track changes, and implementing methodologies on platforms like SEPAL and GitHub.
- The project cooperates with the Ethiopian-Hub for Eastern Africa Forest Observatory (OFESA) project and was shortly engaged with FSC to present information gathered on community-based forest monitoring.
- The project team completed the task on the identification on drivers of deforestation and mostly carried out surveys regarding the data collection on Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) and communities. The analysis of the gathered data is mostly completed and being reviewed by the local communities in several workshops in Addis Ababa and in the regions of Benishangul and Oromia.
- With the Ethiopian project team a paper was published in Nature under funding of this project (www.nature.com/…). The study goes beyond the case of Ethiopia and scales up the whole mapping and characterization drivers of deforestation to the entire African continent.
- Efforts to enhance REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries) safeguards focus on data flow, roles, best practices, and community perceptions in data sharing.
- Synthesis Workshop, June 14th 2024 in Addis Ababa; shared research findings and gathered feedback.
Peru
- Development of new emission factors for the conversion from secondary forests to palm oil plantations, allowing Peru to report tier 2 data.
- Improvement of near-real-time monitoring to complement satellite data, by assessing of the current state and quality of data in the context of community-based a monitoring (view publication and story map). Evaluation of the social impacts and community perceptions of the Programa Bosques (PNBC) incentive mechanism led to recommendations for improving success and inclusion in community-based monitoring, including strategies for administrative support, data sharing, proactive inclusion, and monitoring with gender indicators.
- An assessment of the current state and quality of existing data in the context of community-based monitoring and near real time monitoring has taken place. The results have been published in a scientific paper (www.mdpi.com/…).
- The community monitoring data analysis is completed.
- Various training workshops on knowledge and capacity transfer were held.
- Synthesis Workshop, 7 May 2024 in Lima; shared research findings and gathered feedback.
Papua New Guinea
- Adaptation of project goals to align their current needs and capacities.
- Enhancing technical capacity in Papua New Guinea to integrate transparent monitoring approaches into the national Measurement Reporting and Verification (MRV) system, an assessment report on the enhanced transparency framework includes lessons learned and guidance on avoiding challenges faced in Papua New Guinea.
- Focus on the history of institutional arrangements in Papua New Guinea, including integration of indigenous people and national and international actions; an assessment of institutional arrangements since 2005, including capacity building and development actions, was conducted.