Community forest monitoring in REDD+: the ‘M’ in MRV?

This paper provides a literature review of community-based efforts of monitoring natural resources. The author further analyses the advantages of a community-based approach as compared to professional approaches in terms of lower costs, enhanced local ownership, greater cultural relevance and improved institutional strength at the community level. The paper identifies successful elements from international case studies to assess how locally based monitoring could fit into a REDD+ MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) framework. It is asserted that professional monitoring will continue to be required in areas where:

• local people do not depend on the natural resources
• there is no access
• resource threats are multiple and complex
• the relationship between the communities and the local authorities is poor
  

However, it is noted that further studies are required to examine and compare the quality of locally produced data with professionally derived data. The author cautions that it is important to study how locally produced data can feed into a global mechanism, which would need effective information transfer. Such a system requires building capacities in developing countries and also standardisation of formats of data keeping - potentially by using a systems-based indicator approach.