The value and the feasibility of community monitoring of biomass under REDD + 1

Communities in forest areas can be trained to carry out forest mapping and standard forest inventory, though an intermediary organisation is needed for technical support in some tasks. Costs of community carbon monitoring are likely to be much lower than professional surveys, and accuracy appears to be relatively good. The precision levels depend on the size of the sample and there is an important trade-off between costs of increasing sample size and the amount of carbon that communities could claim as a result. Entrusting forest inventory work to communities could have other advantages within a national REDD programme, such as transparency, and could highlight the value of community forest management in providing carbon services.