Lessons learned: How accurately can we estimate forest area and its change?
Accurate and consistent information on forest area and forest area change is a requirement if a country is to access results-based payments for its REDD+ activities. The goal is to obtain as accurate area estimates as possible but what is ‘as accurate as possible’?
‘What is the level of precision a country can achieve when estimating its area of forest and how the area is increasing or decreasing over time’?
These questions can help clarifying the complex issue of area estimation but do not have straight-forward answers. The accuracy depends on many factors which experts from FAO, FCPF, GFOI, USFS, JRC of EC, WWF, academia and the governments of Norway and Germany discussed at FAO Headquarters in April.
This technical exchange lasted for two days and was an opportunity to synthesize experiences from support provided to developing countries on accuracy of activity data in the REDD+ context.