This Manual is an update from the 2001 “Alternatives to Slash and Burn” lecture notes. The current version of this Manual represents the next step in a process that started in the early 1990s when the Alternative to Slash and Burn (ASB) program started efforts to collect consistent data across the humid tropics (Palm et al., 2005). With growing interest in the topic, other manuals and guidelines have been developed by various organizations, but most focus on ‘forest’ and few deal with the full range of land use types that are found in most forest-derived landscapes.
The Manual is consistent with the Good Practice Guideline (GPG) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that is to be used for national accounting of carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions. The GPG discusses the information, in terms of classification, area data, and sampling that are needed to estimate the carbon stocks and the emissions and removals of greenhouse gases associated with Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) activities.
