Forest biomass monitoring: carbon sink assessment for the carbon credit industry

Use Case 2b explores Forest biomass monitoring: carbon sink assessment for the carbon credit industry

Background

Forests are key in mitigating climate change by sequestering carbon. Above Ground Biomass (AGB) indicates the carbon storage capacity of forest ecosystems, making it a crucial climate variable according to the Global Climate Observing System due to its major role in the global carbon cycle. The case study focuses on ‘carbon projects’ as natural climate solutions, which aim to unlock the carbon reduction potential of agriculture, forestry, and other land use projects. The leading project type is reducing Emissions Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) in voluntary carbon markets, worth almost 400 million REDD+ credits by 2022. REDD+ projects aim to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and are typically private initiatives protecting vulnerable forest areas.

Gaps

Forests hold 80% of above-ground terrestrial carbon and 40% of below-ground terrestrial carbon on Earth. Deforestation and forest degradation lead to loss of carbon stock. To sustainably manage forests at sub-regional to national scales and support policy-relevant activities, such as REDD+ and the Paris Agreement, accurate estimates of the temporal and spatial variation of AGB are crucial. High Resolution (HR) estimates of AGB over large areas are necessary to fulfil the REDD+ Measurement, Reporting, and Verification requirements, mandatory for developing countries and to improve third-party carbon offset quality assessments.

Objectives

Develop a new tool that models above-ground biomass to assess forest carbon stocks. The tool is designed to meet the needs of the carbon credit industry and provide detailed information at both large and local scales. The outputs can be linked to carbon projects, with the longer-term objective of assigning independent ‘carbon scores’ to these projects.

Scale: This case study focuses on high-resolution AGB modelling for the years 2017–2022. Geographically, it coversthe Amazon Rainforest whose basin encompasses approximately 7 million km².

Technical Partners

The Use Case will is developed by GlobeEye.

Co-design users: Financial institutions and other stakeholders interested in exploring new tools to assess carbon-based assets and forest carbon projects.

Links to ThinkingEarth pillars: i) Copernicus Foundation Models; Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data fused products; ii) domain adaptation across different forest ecosystems in South America.