Author Thompson, I.

Year of publication 2013

This is a webinair that took place on September 2013. In this learning session, Dr. Ian Thompson, a research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, discusses his recent co-authored publication, An Operational Framework for Defining and Monitoring Forest Degradation. The work was conducted with an international group as requested by the Collaborative Partnership in Forests, which includes several United Nations organizations, such as FAO, CBD, and UNFF. In this paper, the co-authors suggest that degradation must be measured against multiple criteria that represent the various ways by which a forest can be considered as degraded. This presentation helps REDD+ practitioners, and those working on MRV in particular, to learn more about the importance of also measuring degradation against baseline conditions, and will highlight five basic criteria that relate to the drivers of degradation, loss of ecosystem services, and sustainable management. The key indicators include: productivity, biodiversity, unusual disturbances, protective functions, and carbon storage, and several indicators for each are proposed.