Publication: Assessment of Innovative Technologies and Their Readiness for Remote Sensing-Based Estimation of Forest Carbon Stocks and Dynamics
Loading...
Date
2021-06
ISSN
Published
2021-06
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
In 2005, the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) began to formally set up a framework for financially incentivizing emissions reduction due to deforestation and forest degradation through conservation, the sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon (C) stocks in developing countries. Forest-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, emission reductions, and enhanced removals (carbon sequestration) are estimated by measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems, usually based on a combination of remote sensing data, field or in situ measurements, and modeling approaches. Under the UNFCCC, the lack of consistency limits the comparability between countries and makes the reconciliation of national reports and global estimates that are needed for the 2023 Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreements difficult. Moreover, the ongoing costs of MRV systems can be high, while the accuracy of the estimates is often low, and thus not able to unlock the full potential of climate finance. In this context, the World Bank launched a study to assess the readiness of various innovative technologies. The study began with a review of the current and potential innovative technologies in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the readiness of these technologies, and the challenges to rolling out their implementation. As a result, a set of the main technological challenges, and recommendations for overcoming them, were identified.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2021. Assessment of Innovative Technologies and Their Readiness for Remote Sensing-Based Estimation of Forest Carbon Stocks and Dynamics. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35806 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Citations
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Carbon Sequestration in Agricultural Soils(Washington, DC, 2012-05)The purpose of this report is to improve the knowledge base for facilitating investments in land management technologies that sequester soil organic carbon. While there are many studies on soil carbon sequestration, there is no single unifying volume that synthesizes knowledge on the impact of different land management practices on soil carbon sequestration rates across the world. A meta-analysis was carried out to provide soil carbon sequestration rates in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This is one important element in decision-making for sustainable agricultural intensification, agro-ecosystems resilience, and comprehensive assessments of greenhouse mitigation potentials of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices. Furthermore, the ecosystem simulation modeling technique was used to predict future carbon storage in global cropland soils. Last, marginal abatement cost curves and trade-off graphs were used to assess the cost-effectiveness of the technologies in carbon sequestration. The remainder of the report is organized as follows. Chapter two provides a brief review of soil organic carbon dynamics and the methods for soil carbon assessment. The chapter concludes with brief information on carbon assessment in The World Bank's sustainable land management projects portfolio. Chapter three reports the increase in soil carbon for selected sustainable land management practices in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Chapter four reports the estimates from ecosystem simulation, while chapter five concludes with the benefits and costs of adopting carbon sequestering practices and a discussion of policy options to support climate smart agriculture in developing countries. The report will provide a broad perspective to natural resource managers and other professionals involved in scaling up Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA).Publication Enhancing Carbon Stocks and Reducing CO2 Emissions in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Projects(Washington, DC, 2012-02)There is global interest in promoting mitigation and adaptation in agriculture, forest, and other land-use (AFOLU) sectors to address the twin goals of climate change and sustainable development. This guideline deals with how to enhance carbon stocks in general in all land-based projects and its specific relationship with agriculture productivity. It outlines specific steps and procedures that need to be followed by project proponents and managers of land-based projects to enhance carbon stocks synergistically with increasing crop productivity. This guideline for carbon stock enhancement or CO2 emission reduction in agriculture and natural resource management (NRM) projects covering all land-use sectors presents two approaches. The first approach is a generic one covering all the land categories and interventions aimed at promoting the economic benefits (crop, timber, and non-timber wood product production, and employment or livelihood generation) and environmental benefits (soil and water conservation, land reclamation, and biodiversity protection) of a project, synergistically optimizing carbon stock enhancement as a co-benefit. The second approach provides guidelines for project developers to maximize project C-benefits along with promoting high-value cropping systems and production practices appropriate for a given agro-ecological region as well as to meet the needs of the local stakeholders, such as farmers or landless laborers. An illustration of the two approaches is presented at the end of the executive summary. The guidelines provide methods for selection and incorporation of carbon stock enhancement modules and practices along with methods for estimation and monitoring of carbon stock changes as well as assessment of social and economic implications of carbon enhancement (C-enhancement) interventions.Publication Making Benefit Sharing Arrangements Work for Forest-dependent Communities : Overview of Insights for REDD+ Initiatives(Program on Forests (PROFOR), Washington, DC, 2012-02)This overview paper positions the question of benefit sharing in the context of REDD plus. It shares findings from a cursory review of a sample of Readiness Preparation Proposals (RPP) for REDD plus submitted to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). It deconstructs the concept of benefit sharing. It also provides a summary of the main findings from three recent studies on benefit sharing that were financed by the Program on Forests (PROFOR). The PROFOR studies build on existing research. They also use primary and secondary data collected from a literature review, key informant interviews, structured surveys, and case studies. The studies: a) explore the substantive legal issues and procedural options for identifying legitimate and intended beneficiaries in situations where rights are unclear; b) provide information and tools to assist policy makers and development partners to design and develop nationally appropriate arrangements for transferring REDD plus benefits; and c) provide the local partners' perspective on benefit sharing and the process involved in determining benefits and establishing arrangements for sharing the benefits.Publication Framework Document for a Global Partnership for Oceans(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-03)This document summarizes the approach that the global partnership for oceans (GPO) will take in its work with countries to help improve the health of the oceans and reduce coastal poverty. Restoring the health of the world's ocean is a global challenge that can and must be solved if one has to alleviate poverty, build resilient communities, and foster strong coastal economies. The natural systems underpinning the health of the ocean and the livelihoods, food, and other services dependent upon them are at risk, due largely to human action occurring in the context of weak institutions. The GPO has been established as a convening platform that can help to reduce the barriers to countries obtaining the finance and expertise needed to restore ocean health. To finance this support, the GPO will establish a new global fund for oceans (GPO fund), as well as an ocean investment roundtable. To mobilize the knowledge countries need, the GPO will include a network of expertise from the partners, coordinated through a global assembly of partners, supported by the GPO fund, and a number of communities of practice established around specific issues and themes.Publication The Role of Tropical Forests in Supporting Biodiversity and Hydrological Integrity : A Synoptic Overview(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-06)Conservation of high-biodiversity tropical forests is sometimes justified on the basis of assumed hydrological benefits - in particular, the reduction of flooding hazards for downstream floodplain populations. However, the "far-field" link between deforestation and distant flooding has been difficult to demonstrate empirically. This simulation study assesses the relationship between forest cover and hydrology for all river basins intersecting the world's tropical forest biomes. The study develops a consistent set of pan-tropical land cover maps gridded at one-half degree latitude and longitude. It integrates these data with existing global biogeophysical data. The study applies the Water Balance Model - a coarse-scale process-based hydrological model - to assess the impact of land cover changes on runoff. It quantifies the impacts of forest conversion on biodiversity and hydrology for two scenarios - historical forest conversion and the potential future conversion of the most threatened remaining tropical forests. A worst-case scenario of complete conversion of the most threatened of the remaining forested areas would mean the loss of another three million k
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2021(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-03-24)Today’s unprecedented growth of data and their ubiquity in our lives are signs that the data revolution is transforming the world. And yet much of the value of data remains untapped. Data collected for one purpose have the potential to generate economic and social value in applications far beyond those originally anticipated. But many barriers stand in the way, ranging from misaligned incentives and incompatible data systems to a fundamental lack of trust. World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives explores the tremendous potential of the changing data landscape to improve the lives of poor people, while also acknowledging its potential to open back doors that can harm individuals, businesses, and societies. To address this tension between the helpful and harmful potential of data, this Report calls for a new social contract that enables the use and reuse of data to create economic and social value, ensures equitable access to that value, and fosters trust that data will not be misused in harmful ways. This Report begins by assessing how better use and reuse of data can enhance the design of public policies, programs, and service delivery, as well as improve market efficiency and job creation through private sector growth. Because better data governance is key to realizing this value, the Report then looks at how infrastructure policy, data regulation, economic policies, and institutional capabilities enable the sharing of data for their economic and social benefits, while safeguarding against harmful outcomes. The Report concludes by pulling together the pieces and offering an aspirational vision of an integrated national data system that would deliver on the promise of producing high-quality data and making them accessible in a way that promotes their safe use and reuse. By examining these opportunities and challenges, the Report shows how data can benefit the lives of all people, but particularly poor people in low- and middle-income countries.Publication An Investment Framework for Nutrition(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-04-12)The report estimates the costs, impacts and financing scenarios to achieve the World Health Assembly global nutrition targets for stunting, anemia in women, exclusive breastfeeding and the scaling up of the treatment of severe wasting among young children. To reach these four targets, the world needs $70 billion over 10 years to invest in high-impact nutrition-specific interventions. This investment would have enormous benefits: 65 million cases of stunting and 265 million cases of anemia in women would be prevented in 2025 as compared with the 2015 baseline. In addition, at least 91 million more children would be treated for severe wasting and 105 million additional babies would be exclusively breastfed during the first six months of life over 10 years. Altogether, achieving these targets would avert at least 3.7 million child deaths. Every dollar invested in this package of interventions would yield between $4 and $35 in economic returns, making investing in early nutrition one of the best value-for-money development actions. Although some of the targets—especially those for reducing stunting in children and anemia in women—are ambitious and will require concerted efforts in financing, scale-up, and sustained commitment, recent experience from several countries suggests that meeting these targets is feasible. These investments in the critical 1000 day window of early childhood are inalienable and portable and will pay lifelong dividends – not only for children directly affected but also for us all in the form of more robust societies – that will drive future economies.Publication World Development Report 2018(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018)Every year, the World Bank's World Development Report takes on a topic of central importance to global development. The 2018 Report, Learning to Realize Education's Promise, is the first ever devoted entirely to education. Now is an excellent time for it: education has long been critical for human welfare, but is even more so in a time of rapid economic change. The Report explores four main themes. First, education's promise: Education is a powerful instrument for eradicating poverty and promoting shared prosperity, but fulfilling its potential requires better policies - both within and outside the education system. Second, the learning crisis: Despite gains in education access, recent learning assessments show that many young people around the world, especially from poor families, are leaving school unequipped with even the most foundational skills they need for life. At the same time, internationally comparable learning assessments show that skills in many middle-income countries lag far behind what those countries aspire to. Third, promising interventions to improve learning: Research from areas such as brain science, pedagogical innovations, or school management have identified interventions that promote learning by ensuring that learners are prepared, that teachers are skilled as well as motivated, and that other inputs support the teacher-learner relationship. Fourth, learning at scale: Achieving learning throughout an education system will require more than just scaling up effective interventions. Change requires overcoming technical and political barriers by deploying salient metrics for mobilizing actors and tracking progress, building coalitions for learning, and being adaptive when implementing programs.Publication The Changing Wealth of Nations 2021(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-10-27)It is now clear that a narrow focus on the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) is insufficient to achieve humanity’s aspirations for sustainable prosperity. Wellfunctioning ecosystems and educated populations are requisites for sustainable wellbeing. These and other too-often-neglected ingredients of national wealth must be addressed if the development path is to be sustainable. The Changing Wealth of Nations 2021: Managing Assets for the Future provides the most comprehensive accounting of the wealth of nations, an in-depth analysis of the evolution of wealth, and pathways to build wealth for the future. This report—and the accompanying global database—firmly establishes comprehensive wealth as a measure of sustainability and a key component of country analytics. It expands the coverage of wealth accounts and improves our understanding of the quality of all assets, notably, natural capital. Wealth—the stock of produced, natural, and human capital—is measured as the sum of assets that yield a stream of benefits over time. Changes in the wealth of nations matter because they reflect the change in countries’ assets that underpin future income. Countries regularly track GDP as an indicator of their economic progress, but not wealth, and national wealth has a more direct and long-term impact on people’s lives. This report provides a new set of tools and analysis to help policy makers navigate risks and to guide collective action. Wealth accounts can be applied in macroeconomic analysis to areas of major policy concern such as climate change and natural resource management. This report can be used to look beyond GDP, to gauge nations’ economic well-being, and to promote sustainable prosperity.Publication World Development Report 2017(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-01-30)Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? This book addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.