Linking community-based and national REDD plus monitoring: a review of the potential

Countries participating in REDD+ schemes are required to establish a national monitoring system that keeps track of forest carbon changes over time. Community-based monitoring (CBM) can be useful for tracking locally driven forest change activities and their impacts. In this paper, we review some of the key issues regarding CBM and options to link CBM and national forest monitoring systems. More specifically, we highlight the importance of local drivers of deforestation and degradation and, thus, the relevance of community involvement in REDD+ implementation and monitoring; we review the scientific literature to better define the role and technical conditions under which CBM can contribute to national level monitoring; we develop a conceptual framework for linking local and national monitoring; and we analyze and synthesize 28 REDD+ country approaches to CBM. Finally, we provide recommendations for integrating CBM data into national monitoring systems.