Description: According to the Executive Summary, the aims and objective of this report are to provide an assessment of national capacity and capability in 25 tropical countries for measuring and monitoring forest as a requirement for reporting on REDD under IPCC guidelines. This paper was commissioned by the United Kingdom Office of Climate Change as background work to its report 'Climate Change: Financing Global Forests' (the Eliasch Review).

Description: This paper discusses the research tools used to create baseline data for carbon offset mechanisms. The paper explains vegetation survey methodologies with examples of their application in a variety of contexts. These range from rapid studies using remote sensing imagery, to full multiphase survey methods. The paper gives specific examples of how these methods are used to monitor deforestation and forest regeneration.