Countries & Case studies

The challenge: Cote d’Ivoire is one of the primary producers of cocoa in the world but lacked a trusted data source for assessing the extent of cocoa plantations in the country and related land use change. Over time, private and public stakeholders engaged in establishing multiple competing monitoring systems and creating maps. However, these maps were not interoperable or readily accessible to stakeholders. ​

What was done: Maps were made accessible in a dedicated interactive platform, where users can compare them and identify agreement and contradictions. Stakeholders were brought together improving their understanding of the different monitoring systems and allowing an exchange on their different purposes and uses. This work took place in the wake of the entry into force of the EU Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR, see EU 2023/1115). The TM work highlighted the need for a trusted data source for tracking cocoa- related land use change in Côte d’Ivoire. With support of the EU, the Government released its official state-owned map (“BNEDT map”) in 2024. The Transparent Monitoring Project then facilitated discussions with government, private sector and civil society stakeholders on the implications of the EUDR for the country and specifically for civil society. The Projected highlighted how stakeholders may both be affected by the regulation and can contribute to its compliance.

The challenge: Ethiopia carried out land cover and land use assessments on a small scale, but not at national level and had limited monitoring capacity and knowledge on post-deforestation land use classes. The government had the ambition to start assessing the drivers of forest loss, thus contributing to improving the information on national land use change and REDD+ monitoring and reporting.​​
What was done: The project produced a national-scale map of drivers of land-use changes in Ethiopia. Post-deforestation and deforestation drivers were identified in a collaborative process with local stakeholders. The team developed a deep learning model to track these drivers, using information from the Ethiopian forest inventory and existing monitoring efforts. A technical webinar was organized to explain the methodology to experts in the National Monitoring Unit and identifying future capacity building needs for using the method in Ethiopia.
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The challenge: The Ethiopian government places a strong emphasis in restoring degraded lands and increasing forest cover. While this work is largely carried out by local communities, there is little information on the role of communities play in collecting and sharing data regarding their restoration activities and how information collected through participatory MRV can contribute to monitoring restoration efforts at the national level. ​
​ What was done: The project conducted research to understand how community participation in reporting data from restoration activities could be improved, considering community’s perceptions, motivations and the potential costs and benefits associated with reporting at the community level.​ This allowed to develop recommendations for government stakeholders on how to improve community participation in monitoring restoration activities and on how participatory MRV can support Ethiopia's national forest monitoring system. For example, local communities indicated that they are happy to continue monitoring and would appreciate more feedback, monetary payments as a way of acknowledgement, capacity building and better communication from authorities.​
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The challenge: Ethiopia is an active REDD+ country and is expecting results-based payments through several channels. This requires establishing an effective systems for forest monitoring and safeguards. However, knowledge about the flow of information regarding safeguards across multiple levels of governments is limited. Little knowledge is available regarding the stakeholders involved in data generation, administration and use and how data is shared across government levels. This poses a challenge for an effectives REDD+ safeguard information system in Ethiopia.
What was done: The project conducted a study to identify stakeholders involved in the generation, administration and use of safeguards information in Ethiopia at different levels of government and on how they interact. This included developing operational definition of REDD+ safeguards data, that could be used by stakeholders and complements the general information provided in government documentation. This work identified specific gaps in safeguards data availability, as well as the actors and processes in data sharing, which should be prioritized for capacity building. These findings contribute to improving data flows and completeness of safeguards information. Recommendations were presented to federal and regional stakeholders in Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz.
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The challenge: Over the recent years, the area of palm oil plantations established in degraded secondary forests has been increasing. In part, this has been promoted by industry stakeholders and the government to prevent encroachment of palm oil into primary forest. However, the impact of this conversion on GHG emissions has only been estimated using default emission factors and Peru was lacking country specific emission factors. ​
What was done: The project conducted field studies and surveys to accurately quantify changes in soil and biomass Carbon stocks, and the fluxes of CO2, CH4 and N2O resulting from degraded forest conversion to oil palm plantation in the Peruvian Amazon. The study confirmed that the conversion leads to an overall decrease in carbon stocks and decreased soil respiration. It also showed a decreased uptake of CH4 and an unexpected decrease in emissions of N2O by soils of palm oil plantations compared to forest soils. The results will help Peru move to using a Tier 2 method in its GHG inventory and will help increase the awareness around the emissions associated with the conversion of secondary forests to palm oil plantations. The protocol for carrying out the analysis and developing country specific emissions factors for doing research was published and can be replicated by other countries.​
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The challenge: Peru implements a unique program of incentive payments to indigenous communities for forest protection in the Amazon rainforest. Payments are conditional on communities maintaining the forest in their territory and carrying out specific activities, such as forest patrolling. Communities can participate in the program for up to five years, during which they receive a per hectare payment for their forests. Throughout the program’s implementation some communities have chosen not to participate, while others have dropped out before completing the five-year period or have been suspended, for example because of difficulties fulfilling reporting requirements. The reasons for this dynamic were poorly understood and presented a challenge for supporting the long-term sustainability of community monitoring.​ ​
What was done: The project carried out an evaluation of the social impacts and community perceptions of the incentive mechanism. It conducted interviews with communities, government officials, NGOs, and Indigenous federations. The findings show that community members generally approve of the mechanism and see value in forest patrolling, but struggle with reporting requirements and benefit distribution. Communities have an interest in satellite monitoring and would like to have more access to data and more support for the costs of patrolling. A series of recommendations were developed that include suggested strategies to address the need for administrative support, data sharing, proactive inclusion strategies, and monitoring and evaluation with gender indicators.​
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More information can be found on this website: https://www.canr.msu.edu/fccp/Projects-and-Research/bosques-gente

The challenge: Peru currently implements an alert-driven community-based monitoring program. Satellite-based alerts of deforestation events are communicated to communities, which then carry out a verification on the ground. The system was paper based, which led to delays in data collection and often ambiguity in the collected data regarding the causes of the deforestation events. ​ ​
What was done: The project supported the transition from a paper-based monitoring system to mobile-based monitoring. This includes digital data collection through cell phones, the system for data storage and data analysis procedures. With the new system the time for verifying satellite-based deforestation alerts has been significantly reduced. Communities were trained in the use of the digital system in workshops and in the field. To improve transparency the system has been implemented using open-source data collection and analysis services(ODK Collect, PostgresSQL) and the FAIR principles are applied. ​
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More information can be found on this website: https://www.earthinformatics.eu/cases/community-based-forest-monitoring-using-mobile-technologies or on the storymap.