13 March 2009: The UNFCCC has posted on its website a document regarding reducing emissions for deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) titled “Implications of REDD baseline methods for different country circumstances during an initial performance period,” submitted by The Nature Conservancy.

The document compares the implications of various baseline methodologies – the Compensated Reductions proposal, the Joint Research Center proposal, Corridor Approaches, the Combined Incentives approach, the Stock-Flow approach, and the Terrestrial Carbon Group proposal – on calculating total credited emissions avoided. The authors found that the choice of baseline methodology has significant implications, with outcomes varying most widely for those countries that have high levels of forest cover but low rates of deforestation. [The Document]