摘要：This paper reviews the technical capabilities for monitoring deforestation from a
pan-tropical perspective in response to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) process, which is studying the technical issues surrounding the
ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in developing countries. The
successful implementation of such policies requires effective forest monitoring systems
that are reproducible, provide consistent results, meet standards for mapping
accuracy, and can be implemented from national to pan-tropical levels. Remotely
sensed data, supported by ground observations, are crucial to such efforts. Recent
developments in global to regional monitoring of forests can contribute to reducing the
uncertainties in estimates of emissions from deforestation. Monitoring systems at
national levels in developing countries can also benefit from pan-tropical and
regional observations, mainly by identifying hot spots of change and prioritizing
areas for monitoring at finer spatial scales. A pan-tropical perspective is also
required to ensure consistency between different national monitoring systems. Data sources already exist to determine baseline periods in the 1990s as historical reference
points. Key requirements for implementing such monitoring programs, both at pan-tropical
and at national scales, are international commitment of resources to increase capacity,
coordination of observations to ensure pan-tropical coverage, access to free or low-cost
data, and standardized, consensus protocols for data interpretation and analysis.
