Acorn AM-002 Tool Performing Deforestation Assessment
Product Information
Specifications
- Product Name: AM-002
- Version: 1.0
- Purpose: Tool for Performing Deforestation Assessment on Small-scale Agroforestry
- Applicability: Global with acceptable accuracies, temporal period dated back to 2001
- Methodology: Satellite imagery (remote assessment) and Local Stakeholders/experts (manual assessment)
Product Usage Instructions
Deforestation Assessment Process
The deforestation assessment process involves the following steps.
- For each plot, determine if it contains natural forested land.
- If the plot is on natural forested land, assess whether deforestation occurred within the Monitoring Period.
- If disturbance occurred during the Monitoring Period, calculate if the disturbed area has experienced deforestation within the plot.
- If eligibility criteria are not met, Local Stakeholders may provide evidence of deforestation due to natural events for consideration.
Process Overview
- A flow chart illustrating the approach for remote and manual deforestation assessment is provided in Figure 1 of the user manual.
Data Parameters
- This module does not involve any specific equations or parameters for assessment.
FAQs
Q: Can this tool be used for large-scale deforestation assessments?
A: The tool is designed for small-scale agroforestry assessments with a focus on acceptable accuracies globally.
Q: What are the sources of information used in the assessment?
A: The assessment combines satellite imagery for remote assessment and inputs from Local Stakeholders or experts for manual assessment.
Summary
- This tool for ‘Performing Deforestation Assessment on Small-scale Agroforestry v1.0’ describes the procedures for assessing whether a plot will pass or fail the eligibility criteria associated with deforestation assessment within small-scale agroforestry projects.
- Plots with tree cover loss 5 years before plot onboarding will not be considered eligible and are therefore not able to participate in the Acorn program.
- This tool is used to determine whether deforestation has taken place on a plot.
- This tool applies to Acorn projects that apply small-scale agroforestry practices.
Sources
The reason for developing this tool is that the current existing methodologies (e.g., VM0007) often do not fit the context of small-scale agroforestry projects where avoided deforestation is not the goal.
This tool partially follows procedures from the following methodology:
- AR-TOOL14 Estimation of carbon stocks and change in carbon stocks of trees and shrubs in A/R CDM project activities v 4.2.
Definitions
- Definitions used in this module follow the latest version of the Acorn Glossary available on the Acorn website.
Applicability Conditions
- For this tool, the applicability conditions of the Acorn Methodology AM-001 v2.0 should be met.
Procedures
- This deforestation assessment tool is built on the Hansen Global Forest Change product (Hansen et al., 2013) or an alternative global forest inventory data source.
- The Hansen dataset is preferred as it allows for transparency and repeatability of the assessment.
- Following Hansen, deforestation can be identified when a stand-replacement disturbance or complete removal of tree cover canopy at a 30m pixel resolution scale appears.
- Applying this approach provides continuous and reliable forest change monitoring at a global scale.
- This ensures that the desired deforestation assessment can be applied globally with acceptable accuracies and for the required temporal period dated back to 2001.
- This deforestation assessment tool is designed based on satellite imagery (remote assessment) and Local Stakeholders or experts (manual assessment) information. A flow chart illustrating the approach is presented in Figure 1.
- For each plot, Acorn assesses whether the plot contains natural forested land.
- If the plot is on natural forested land, Acorn assesses whether deforestation occurred within the Monitoring Period.
- If disturbance has occurred during the Monitoring Period, Acorn calculates whether the disturbed area has experienced deforestation within the plot.
- If the eligibility criteria in step 2 are not met, Local Stakeholders may submit evidence to prove that deforestation has occurred due to natural events (e.g., hurricanes, flooding, natural forest fire, etc.).
- In such instances, these plots may be allowed to take part in the Acorn project.
- Figure 1. Process overview for remote and manual deforestation assessment.
Parameters
Not applicable for this module, there are no equations.
References
- Clean Development Mechanism, United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change (2015) ‘AR-tool 14: Estimation of carbon stocks and change in carbon stocks of trees and shrubs in A/R CDM project activities,’ UNFCCC Methodologies, 04.2.
- https://cdm.unfccc.int/methodologies/ARmethodologies/tools/ar-am-tool-14-v4.2.pdf
- (Accessed: October 24, 2023).
- Hansen, M.C. et al. (2013) ‘High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest cover change,’ Science, 342(6160), pp. 850–853. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1244693.
Documents / Resources
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Acorn AM-002 Tool Performing Deforestation Assessment [pdf] Instruction Manual AM-002 Tool Performing Deforestation Assessment, Tool Performing Deforestation Assessment, Performing Deforestation Assessment, Deforestation Assessment, Assessment |
