Categories of Activities, Programmes and Projects Requiring Carbon Inventory

Chapter 1 briefly describes the rationale and need for carbon inventory methods and guidelines and touches upon different programmes, activities and projects requiring carbon inventory. A carbon inventory involves estimation of changes in the stocks of carbon (in biomass and in soil) or its emissions and removal, normally expressed in tonnes of carbon per hectare, for a given land-use system, and time at a project level or national level. Carbon inventory is required for estimating: (i) the contribution of a country to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emission; (ii) carbon mitigation potential of a given project or activity; (iii) production of commercial timber or fuelwood from a plantation forestry project; and (iv) the impact of land reclamation projects on soil fertility.