During COP26 in Glasgow, CfRN’s technical team was invited to speak at an event organized by UNFCCC Secretariat about its in-country capacity-building resource, called the Foundational Platform tool. The event aimed to help in the continuous improvement of tools and methodologies for mapping rainforests and help practitioners and REDD+ experts who conduct technical assessment of forest reference levels.

Eloise Guidi, CfRN technical expert, presented and highlighted that the forest sector was gaining more and more attention due to its contribution towards net-zero emission targets. She said that to ensure robust forest mapping and emissions data, countries must build systems to monitor and estimate emissions and absorptions from forests. These estimates needed to be reported transparently to the UNFCCC. During the event other technical experts presented the tools developed to help countries monitor and report on REDD+.

CfRN has worked to support countries in this process for almost a decade and developed a tool to ensure transparency and full consistency for UNFCCC REDD+ mechanism. The result is a product and service called, Foundational Platform; an Excel-based tool that allows country to:

• own a database for national historical data
• report on all UNFCCC documents, such as Greenhouse Gas inventory (GHGi) and Forest Emissions Reference Levels (FRLs), in a consistent manner
• utilize an easy to use and transparent calculation tool
• be flexible and adapt to data inputs, tiers, methods used, and to be
• fully compliant with UNFCCC decisions, IPCC guidelines and the Paris Agreement

To learn more about the event and the foundational tool, please check out the following resources:

• Watch the recording of the event : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suumgdd64pk
• Presentation : CfRN-FP_05112021_final.pptx
• Concept Note: https://unfccc.int/event/unfccc-side-event-redd-tools-and-methodologies