Technical guide for the Adaptation, Biodiversity and Carbon Mapping Tool

Book excerpt: ABC-Map was designed with the specific objective of holistically assessing the environmental impacts of national policies, plans and investments in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector through Google Earth-based satellite imagery. ABC-Map helps to develop synergies and trade-offs between climate, biodiversity and land restoration actions. The Adaptation section helps to understand exposure to climate change risks and to assess climate change over time in a given area. It includes a climate and geophysical profile with, for example, information on temperature and precipitation trends over the past 40 years. The Biodiversity section covers a series of indicators that are intended to complement each other and provide a more comprehensive view of pressures and impacts on biodiversity. These indicators are average species abundance, land use change in protected areas and key biodiversity areas, and natural capital. The Carbon section aims to account for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the AFOLU sector and work towards their reduction. The Carbon section is similar to the Nationally Determined Contributions Expert Tool (NEXT), it takes into account the evolution of the carbon stock, the carbon balance and the social value of carbon. The objective of this technical manual is to provide users with (i) the detailed structure of ABC-Map, (ii) its methodological background, and (iii) the different data and factors used such as emission factors and default carbon stock values, reference values from ESVD, GLOBIO, climate and geophysical datasets among others.