This working paper suggests that degradation is a form of (unsustainable) forest management and that measures to counter degradation, in particular Community Forest Management (CFM) lead not only to reduction in degradation but to forest enhancement as well. While reduced degradation is to be credited and rewarded under a Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD) mechanism, it may in fact be more important to measure and reward the increases in carbon stock due to the enhanced growth than the decreases in emissions due to reducing the degradation. Communities are well able to make measurements of changing stock using standard forest inventory methods and mapping techniques based on handheld Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). A field manual developed by the Kyoto: Think Global Act Local project is freely available for use by Non Government Organisations (NGOs) or project developers who wish to promote this. The paper describes results from community forest management projects in six countries in Asia and Africa in which communities were trained to map their forests and measure carbon stock over a period of three to five years. The costs, reliability and ownership advantages of community based measuring and monitoring are also discussed.
