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In spite of growing interest, a principal obstacle to wider inclusion of improved cookstove projects in carbon trading schemes has been the lack of accountability in estimating CO 2 -equivalent (CO 2 -e) savings. To demonstrate that robust estimates of CO 2 -e savings can be obtained at reasonable cost, an integrated approach of community-based subsampling of traditional and improved stoves in homes to estimate fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, combined with spatially explicit community-based estimates of the fraction of nonrenewable biomass harvesting (fNRB), was used to estimate CO 2 -e savings for 603 homes with improved Patsari stoves in Purépecha communities of Michoacán, Mexico. Mean annual household CO 2 -e savings for CO 2 , CH 4 , CO, and nonmethane hydrocarbons were 3.9 tCO 2 -e home -1 yr -1 (95% CI ( 22%), and for Kyoto gases (CO 2 and CH 4 ) were 3.1 tCO 2 -e home -1 yr -1 (95% CI ( 26%), respectively, using a weighted mean fNRB harvesting of 39%. CO 2 -e savings ranged from 1.6 (95% CI ( 49%) to 7.5 (95% CI ( 17%) tCO 2 -e home -1 yr -1 for renewable and nonrenewable harvesting in individual communities, respectively. Since emission factors, fuel consumption, and fNRB each contribute significantly to the overall uncertainty in estimates of CO 2 -e savings, communitybased assessment of all of these parameters is critical for robust estimates. Reporting overall uncertainty in the CO 2 -e savings estimates provides a mechanism for valuation of carbon offsets, which would promote better accounting that CO 2 -e savings had actually been achieved. Cost of CO 2 -e savings as a result of adoption of Patsari stoves was US$8 per tCO 2 -e based on initial stove costs, monitoring costs, and conservative stove adoption rates, which is ∼4 times less expensive than use of carbon capture and storage from coal plants, and ∼18 times less than solar power. The low relative cost of CO 2 -e abatement of improved stoves combined with substantial health cobenefits through reduction in indoor air pollution provides a strong rationale for targeting these less expensive carbon mitigation options, while providing substantial economic assistance for stove dissemination efforts. IntroductionThere is growing interest in trading carbon offsets from improved stove programs on carbon markets for voluntary reductions, or as part of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. This interest arises from the large number of people that still cook with biomass (approximately half of the global population) (1), and because emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) relative to delivered energy are high as a result of poor total energy efficiency of traditional stoves. There are three principal barriers to more widespread acceptance of carbon offsets from improved biomass cookstove projects. First, measurement and verification of emissions reductions are complex compared to the stack monitors typically used for industrial facilities, as stoves are spread over large areas, often in remote regions. Traditional assess...

Forest degradation affects forest structure, composition and diversity, carbon stocks, functionality and ecosystem processes. It is known to contribute significantly to global carbon emissions, but there is uncertainty about the relative size of these emissions. This is largely because while deforestation, or long-term forest clearance, has been successfully monitored using remote sensing (RS) technology, there are more difficulties in using RS to quantify forest degradation, in which the area remains as forest, but with an altered structure, composition and function. A major challenge in estimating emissions from forest degradation is that in addition to identifying the areas affected, the amount of biomass loss over time in a given area must be estimated. Contributory challenges to mapping, monitoring and quantifying forest degradation include the complexity of the concept of degradation, limitations in the spatial and temporal resolution of RS sensors, and the inherent complexity of detecting degradation caused by different disturbance processes and forest uses. We take the innovative approach of dividing the studies reviewed by the specific type of forest disturbance that is being monitored (selective logging, fires, shifting cultivation and fuelwood extraction etc.), since these different activities will result in different signatures in the canopy and thus may determine the type of RS technology that may best be applied.