ABSTRACT. Will community monitoring assist in delivering just and equitable REDD+? We assessed whether local communities can effectively estimate carbon stocks in some of the world's most carbon rich forests, using simple field protocols, and we reviewed whether community monitoring exists in current REDD+ pilots. We obtained similar results for forest carbon when measured by communities and professional foresters in 289 vegetation plots in Southeast Asia. Most REDD+ monitoring schemes, however, contain no community involvement. To close the gulf between United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change texts on involving communities and field implementation realities, we propose greater embedding of community monitoring within national REDD+ pilot schemes, which we argue will lead to a more just REDD+.

Policy relevance Policy makers, researchers and analysts helping to plan and implement REDD+, environmental services and climate change would find this paper potentially helpful. The paper explores progress on REDD+ Readiness across four countries (Cameroon, Indonesia, Peru and Vietnam) and provides broad lessons, recommendations and examples across these countries for further improving REDD+. The paper also suggests an innovative, credible and universally applicable set of criteria and indicators derived through a systematic review that could serve further global comparative analysis of readiness for REDD+ and relevant national environmental services delivery systems, including climate change mitigation.

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Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+) is a potentially powerful international policy mechanism that many tropical countries are working towards implementing. Thus far, limited practical consideration has been paid to local rights to forests and forest resources in REDD+ readiness programs, beyond noting the importance of these issues. Previous studies have shown that community members can reliably and cost-effectively monitor forest biomass. At the same time, this can improve local ownership and forge important links between monitoring activities and local decision-making. Existing studies have, however, been static assessments of biomass at one point in time. REDD+ programs will require repeated surveys of biomass over extended time frames. Here, we examine trends in accuracy and costs of local forest monitoring over time. We analyse repeated measurements by community members and professional foresters of 289 plots over two years in four countries in Southeast Asia. This shows, for the first time, that with repeated measurements community members' biomass measurements become increasingly accurate and costs decline. These findings provide additional support to available evidence that community members can play a strong role in monitoring forest biomass in the local implementation of REDD+.

Highlights d An index to track vulnerability of global rainforests to climate and land use d Four decades of satellite data show widespread vulnerability across the tropics d Response of rainforests to heat and drying varies across the continents d Early warning from the index can identify regions for conservation and restoration