LUWES: Land use planning for Low Emission Development Strategy

Land Use Planning for Low Emission Development Strategy (LUWES) is a platform for developing a multiple stakeholder decision-making process to establish land use plans for sustainable development, which can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land-based activity while simultaneously maintaining economic growth. It can simulate emissions reduction scenarios within specific zones of a landscape, or across an entire landscape, in order to produce ex ante emissions reduction and opportunity cost forecasts. It also recognizes the impact of land use allocation policies and distribution on tenure and livelihood. LUWES can accommodate the integration process between multiple modalities of land-based emission reductions (such as REDD+; Locally Appropriate Mitigation Action (LAMA); and the voluntary carbon market) at the
planning stage across a common landscape.