MRV Framework
The MRV system: measurement, reporting, verification and methods.
MRV System
Under Decision 4/CP.15, the NFMS must combine remote sensing with ground-based forest carbon inventory to estimate forest-related greenhouse gas emissions and removals, carbon stocks and forest area changes, with transparent, consistent and accurate estimates that are available for review.
Kenya's NFMS provides forest area change (activity data, from SLEEK land cover maps) and forest carbon stocks (emission factors, from forest inventory). Emissions and removals are calculated from the two.
- Activity data: land cover / land use maps every 2 years (SLEEK)
- Emission factors: national forest inventory every 10 years, and biomass surveys
- Forest cover change monitoring: JJ-FAST (radar) and NRTFAS (optical), with ground truth through Survey123
- Policies and measures, biodiversity, and REDD+ / A/R CDM project registration
Who prepares the national GHG inventory
The forestry and other land use (FOLU) working group was led by DRSRS with KFS, the State Department for Forestry, KWS and Egerton University.
Kenya has not yet institutionalised a permanent national inventory system. The Project Management Unit of the Biennial Transparency Report project acts as the National GHG Inventory Coordinating Unit until the planned institutional framework is operational.
Tracking the NDC
Kenya is strengthening an integrated MRV system for mitigation and adaptation actions and their results, interoperable with the National and County Integrated Monitoring and Evaluation Systems (NIMES and CIMES). The Climate Change Directorate coordinates state and non-state actors in annual, mid-term and end-term reports, which feed national and international reporting. The NFMS supplies the forest and land data for this system.
Source: Ministry of Environment and Forestry, National Forest Monitoring System in the Republic of Kenya, Version 1 (Draft), February 2021. Chapters 2 and 4.2.
Source: Kenya's Second Nationally Determined Contribution 2031–2035, Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, 2025.
Source: Ministry of Environment, Climate Change and Forestry, Kenya's Third National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Document 1990–2022, December 2024 (Kenya’s national inventory report to the UNFCCC). Chapter 1.2.1, Figure 1-1.