The Ministry of Forestry through its Minister’s regulation No. 47/2011 has assigned responsibility and authority to Kapuas Hulu District to undertake activities related to REDD Demonstration Activities. Designated activities include: (1) Measuring carbon stocks in forest areas, (2) Preparing the implementation of monitoring of the forest carbon storage, and (3) Preparing the implementation of carbon emission reduction from forest degradation and deforestation.

With the purpose of supporting the measuring and monitoring of forest carbon stocks, the District Service of Plantation and Forestry of Kapuas Hulu and GIZ FORCLIME collaboratively held a training course on Measuring and Estimating Forest Carbon Stocks in Putusibau from 17 to 20 January 2012. The objective of the training was to build capacities of people involved in REDD Demonstration Activities to measure forest carbon stocks using methodology that is scientifically sound. Participants were about 22 people from various government agencies, private forestry sector and non-governmental organizations in Kapuas Hulu. Instructors and facilitators of the training came from GIZ FORCLIME, from the Dipterocarps Research Center of Samarinda and from the Production Forest Utilization Monitoring Center (BP2HP) of West Kalimantan.

On the first day, participants gained basic knowledge related to global warming issues and the importance of reducing deforestation and degradation in tropical forests as climate change mitigation efforts. Additionally, participants were introduced to concepts of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV), forest inventory, and measuring and estimating carbon stocks, including developing local allometric equations. The second day was a field exercise to learn the techniques and strategies for data collection through forest and carbon inventory as well as the development of allometric equations. On the third day, participants exercised data processing of field inventory data. On the last day, participants were taught how to use the processed data for calculating baseline emissions in the region or area.

During the closing ceremony, the Head of District Service of Plantation and Forestry of Kapuas Hulu confirmed that it is important for stakeholders in the district to be able to conduct MRV accurately and credibly. Therefore, he suggested to the participants to practice, learn more and disseminate the knowledge that was explained and practised during the training. Additionally, he also mentioned the need of continued support from GIZ FORCLIME related to capacity development.

For further information please contact:
Solichin Manuri
Forest Carbon Senior Advisor
solichin.manuri@gmail.com