Community-based Forest Monitoring for REDD+:

Lessons and reflections from the field The involvement of local communities in forest monitoring is one meaningful way in which they can take on responsibilities for REDD+ and be rewarded for their inputs. The Community Carbon Accounting Project shows that through well-designed training and support programmes, the capacity of local people can be built to take forest measure-ments for accurate and precise estimates of forest carbon stock changes. Community involvement in forest monitoring particularly makes good sense when the communities themselves are forest managers. Through the generation of scientifically verifiable data, communities can explore new management options, such as REDD+, and will be better informed in their dealings with outside professionals. Governments preparing for REDD+ should begin exploring and testing options for incor-porating community-based monitoring into national forest monitoring and safeguards information systems. Being locally based, communities can monitor some variables more effectively than outside professionals, and the involvement of communities in monitoring will enhance transparency