Guidelines on the Operationalization of the National Forest Monitoring System for the Implementation of the Philippine REDD+ Strategy

DENR Administrative Order No. 2021-32

Subject: Guidelines on the Operationalization of the National Forest Monitoring System for the Implementation of the Philippine REDD+ Strategy

Signed: October 14, 2021 . Published: November 11, 2021 . Acknowledged: ONAR, U.P. Law Center, November 11, 2021.

Legal Basis

EO 881 (2010) designates DENR as operational implementer of REDD+. EO 174 (2014) makes DENR lead agency for GHG inventory of waste, industrial processes, and land use and forestry.

Purpose

Establishes the National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS) as the national Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) and monitoring system for the Philippine REDD+ Strategy. NFMS data may also serve purposes beyond REDD+ results-based payments.

Targets

• Operationalize a Satellite Land Monitoring System within six months, producing forest land use and land-use change activity data every two years.
• Adopt the Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) as the official National Forest Inventory, providing emission factors every five years.
• Publish forestry-sector GHG inventories (emissions and removals) every two years.
• Launch a Forest Information System web portal within six months for verified forest data accessible to agencies, LGUs, researchers, financial institutions, CSOs, and academe.
• Support Biennial Update Reports, National Communications, and other international reporting.

Components

• Satellite Land Monitoring System: GIS and remote sensing for forest cover and forest cover change, the primary source of activity data for UNFCCC reporting.
• National Forest Inventory: all future government MRV field inventories must use the revised FRA field manual.
• Other data sources: forest tenure programs, the National Greening Program, the Lawin Forest and Biodiversity Protection System, foreign-assisted projects, voluntarily submitted private studies, and other agency databases.

Implementation

The Forest Management Bureau is lead implementer. It collects, organizes, stores, and publishes the data through the Forest Information System and submits data needs to the Climate Change Commission for UNFCCC reporting. DENR, through FMB, funds the system.

Effectivity

Takes effect 15 days after publication and ONAR registration.

Relevance: the NFMS and FRA methodology form the national reference layer that forest carbon projects and nature-based solution claims are increasingly measured against. Signed by Secretary Roy A. Cimatu. Summary prepared by EnviSynergy from the official DENR issuance; refer to the full text for binding provisions.