Community Monitoring for REDD+: International Promises and Field Realities

Will community monitoring assist in delivering just and equitable REDD+? We assessed whether local
communities can effectively estimate carbon stocks in some of the world’s most carbon rich forests, using simple field protocols,
and we reviewed whether community monitoring exists in current REDD+ pilots. We obtained similar results for forest carbon
when measured by communities and professional foresters in 289 vegetation plots in Southeast Asia. Most REDD+ monitoring
schemes, however, contain no community involvement. To close the gulf between United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change texts on involving communities and field implementation realities, we propose greater embedding of community
monitoring within national REDD+ pilot schemes, which we argue will lead to a more just REDD+.