Definitions and Methodological Options to Inventory Emissions from Direct Human-induced Degradation of Forests and Devegetation of Other Vegetation Types

This report on Definitions and Methodological Options to Inventory Emissions from Direct Human-induced Degradation of Forests and Devegetation of Other Vegetation Types is the response from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to an invitation from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) . The report was prepared in cooperation with the preparation of the other report under the IPCC National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Programme (IPCC-NGGIP), on Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (GPG-LULUCF).

The report discusses:

• Alternative definitions and provides possible framework definitions for countries to consider;
• Methodological options to inventory emissions from degradation and devegetation activities;
• Approaches to reporting and documentation; and
• Implications of methodological and definitional options for accounting under the provisions of Article 3.4 of the Kyoto Protocol (including issues of scale, costs and accuracy).

Guidance on possible methodologies for estimation of greenhouse gas emissions or removals provided in this report draws substantively on the GPG-LULUCF.

This report was adopted/accepted by the IPCC Plenary at its 21st session held in Vienna, 3-7 November, 2003.