Wood product accounting and climate change mitigation projects involving tropical timber

Harvesting timber directly contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere by reducing storage of forest carbon stocks and increasing storage in wood product stocks. This report examines on existing methods for accounting for harvested wood products (HWP) in mitigation projects, as well as possible new approaches that could improve the accuracy of HWP mitigation accounting. Accounting measures are specifically explored for emissions from landfill, debris piles, burning and retirement (such as use of HWP for construction or paper production). Although harvested wood product accounting is relevant to national accounting and to future REDD+ schemes, these are not within the scope of the review.