3 June 2013: The UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD) has published the May edition of its newsletter highlighting activities in Ecuador, Indonesia, Mexico and Mongolia.

With regard to regional activities, the newsletter reports on the first workshop on using allometric equations to estimate carbon sequestration in Africa. Also on the theme of monitoring, the report mentions progress on the national forest monitoring system and the establishment of a national greenhouse gas inventory system in Ecuador.

In Mexico, the newsletter highlights support from UN-REDD and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) on the use of open source programs for the analysis of satellite images.

The newsletter also addresses the value of forests in Mongolia, which was recorded as 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), however, the unrecorded value to rural households alone amounts to about 12.5 per cent of per capita GDP.

The newsletter also lists reports on linking REDD+ and the green economy, national monitoring systems for REDD+, and forest trade within the framework of the green economy. [Publication: UN-REDD Newsletter Issue #38]