A series of activities aiming to modify the dynamics of deforestation and/or forest degradation and/or to increase forest carbon stocks, within a delimited geographical area, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to these dynamics. A results based compensation mechanism ( based on funds or carbon market) has been put into place to validate and encourage these reductions. The emissions must be measured, monitored and validated according to a methodology previously approved by an internationally recognized institution. Reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are measured according to a plausible reference level previously established according to the methodology enforced by the host country.

Source: WRI (World Resources Institute) Forest Atlas

Source: WRI (World Resources Institute) Forest Atlas

Source: WRI (World Resources Institute) Forest Atlas

Source: WRI (World Resources Institute) Forest Atlas

Based on: SRTM 90m Digital Elevation Data, version 4, derived by CGIAR-CSI GeoPortal. Source: CGIAR

Source: Atlas of forest cover and change 2000-2010 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, FACET – Initiative for remote sensing forest monitoring in Central Africa. Prepared by: Observatoire satellital des forêts d’Afrique centrale (OSFAC), South Dakota State University (SDSU), University of Maryland (UMD), © OSFAC, 2010. Source: FACET

Source: WRI (World Resources Institute) Forest Atlas

Based on: A. Verhegghen, P. Defourny, "A new 300 m vegetation map for Central Africa based on multi-sensor times series", Third Recent Advance in Quantitative Remote Sensing, J.A. Sobrino (Ed.), Publicaciones de la Universitat de Valencia,Valencia, Spain, 2010.608 Vegetation types of 8 countries in Central Africa have been mapped thanks to a semi-automatic processing method based on temporal and spectral information from 19 months of ENVISAT MERIS FRS observation and 8 years of SPOT VEGETATION time series. The approach is based on a previous 1-km mapping effort for the Democratic Republic of Congo and on the lessons learnt from the ESA-GlobCover project. A land cover map with 20 vegetation classes was produced in five major steps: data compositing, seasonal stratification of the study zone, unsupervised classifications, automatic labelling and manual editing. The floristic composition and physiognomy of each vegetation type are described using the Land Cover Classification System developed by the FAO. This mapping exercise will be a reference document to deliver area estimates of the different forest types in a consistent way for DRCongo, Gabon, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. For the display of the NFMS portal, the original data has been reprojected to "latlong" projection, cropped, and masked for the area of the DRC.

An initiative bearing direct or indirect impact on greenhouse gas emissions due to deforestation and/or forest degradation, sustainable future and increase of forest carbon stocks, in the short or medium term, and proposed to be inserted in the national REDD+ strategy.