Write-shop for Consolidation of Results and Report Design
Lalitpur- Government of Nepal, Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, with the technical assistance of FAO and ICIMOD, organized a 4-day write-shop on Nepal FRL Assessment: Development of Forest Reference Level for Nepal from 20-23 September, 2016 in Godavary, Lalitpur Nepal. A total number of 20 participants representing National and International Teams preparing the FRL submission attended the write shop.
Progress dissemination on FRL development work for Nepal was discussed in the write-shop. The participants were also engaged in the evaluation of the methods, results, reliability and reporting structure of individual components with cross component understanding and consistency leading to final reporting. A wide range of discussions were held in the write shop on giving final shape to the results and FRL reporting system.
The 4-day write-shop included detail presentations and feedback sessions on each component and sub-component to allow individual participants to formulate their position and contribute from their perspective to the discussion on FRL reporting for Nepal.
Experts from FAO, ICIMOD and REDD IC Nepal facilitated the write-shop.
The write-shop was focussed on the objective of Nepal FRL constructions. The objective of Nepal FRL constructionsis to determine Nepal’s Forest Reference Level with the goal of informing the development and implementation of REDD+ policies in Nepal, to underpin the credibility of REDD+, and inform assessment of performance of results-based REDD+ activities. After due considerations at different levels of stakeholders and technical discussions, the FRL construction is being carried out at national level for the historical period 2000-2010 with focus on activities namely deforestation, forest degradation and forest enhancement regulating carbon fluxes. Based on historical and national level data availability, consistency and reliability, the above and below ground biomass pools and carbon dioxide are chosen for estimations. The globally approved guidelines of IPCC, UNREDD and UNFCCC were chosen conjunctively to build the FRL estimations. Accordingly, the appropriate nationally available data and information were collected from relevant thematic ministries. National forest inventory data of 2010 and national forest cover assessment served as fundamental source to provided biomass levels across different forest types and physiographic strata. Remote sensing based Land cover change assessment information for the period 2000-2010 as an activity data provided information on deforestation, afforestation and forest land remaining as forest. Based on national inventory of 2010, wood extractions (fuelwood and timber) and grazing are identified as major drivers of forest degradation leading to carbon losses. The carbon gains due to forest enhancement were estimated due to the contributions from MAI of forest land remaining as forest. The carbon loss and gain due to deforestation and afforestation are being estimated using remote sensing based change area estimates and national biomass inventory data. A total of 113.1 sq.km and 176.4 sq.km were estimated to have undergone deforestation and afforestation respectively during 2000-2010. These areas will be used along with per hectare biomass data to estimate carbon losses. The degradation due to unsustainable wood fuel harvesting was estimated applying the Wood fuels Integrated Supply/Demand Overview Mapping (WISDOM) methodology. It is estimated that the expected annual degradation of the Forest-remaining-Forest (FRF), i.e. the area that remained under forest cover for the whole reporting period 2000-2010, is 138 thousand ad tons, ranging between 83 and 194 thousand ad tons. An assessment of feeds and fodder supply from forest, agriculture and rangeland resources and status of biomass removed by the grazing/browsing animals has been done to assess grazing used degradation and associated carbon fluxes using nationally available published data, information and reports. It is estimated that 10608870 mt DM/annum green fodder deficit exists out of which 40% deficit is excessively met from forests beyond the sustainable supply. This amount to 4.7 MT/annum biomass is lost due to excessive grazing.