Countries around the world are undertaking efforts to strengthen their forest monitoring systems to meet enhanced technical requirements of new carbon standards, thereby opening up access to carbon finance. Although international carbon finance is seen as highly promising, there is little concrete experience on how countries could progress towards the required high-integrity forest monitoring systems.

The project will develop an innovative and globally relevant approach to Improve Measurement for Payments to Reduce Emissions and Strengthen Sinks (IMPRESS), and a globally relevant pilot application in Kenya, for countries wishing to move towards high-integrity forest monitoring systems enabling access to climate finance.

In the pilot country, the proposed activities will enhance Kenya’s capacity to reduce emissions and enhance sinks from the forest sector, and thereby support the country’s progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and its long-term development plan. Furthermore, Kenya will be able to accurately measure progress in reducing deforestation and forest degradation and track removal increases from restoration activities. This will also help to underpin a robust long-term mitigation strategy and reporting under the Paris Agreement in line with its Nationally Determined Contribution.

With a successful pilot in Kenya, outreach to other countries beyond Kenya will be undertaken to enable their learning from Kenya's experience and to promote replication of important lessons learned.