Taiwan Space Agency and Universities Launch Space-Based MRV System for Indigenous Rights, Biodiversity and Carbon Market
Using satellite data and integrated MRV systems, Taiwan advances scalable monitoring for biodiversity-based carbon projects.
As the world approaches a critical milestone in the second half of the Paris Agreement implementation period, the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) is expected to focus on the integration of mitigation and adaptation strategies, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and the substantive role of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in climate action.
Against this global backdrop, a ten-year international collaborative programme formally endorsed by the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI) under the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) is being implemented with Taiwan as a key demonstration hub. The programme, titled “System-of-Systems Solution in Monitoring, Reporting, Validation and Verification on GHGs/Carbon Cycle in Biodiversity Ecosystem for SEPLS to Strengthen Sustainable Frameworks Development,” aims to deliver an integrated and internationally credible solution addressing climate change and biodiversity loss.
Centred on Socio-Ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS), the project applies a System-of-Systems MRV (Monitoring, Reporting, Validation and Verification) framework to address three issues highlighted in the COP30 agenda - Indigenous rights, ecosystem integrity and the credibility and fairness of carbon markets. The initiative seeks to establish a long-term governance model that delivers shared benefits for Indigenous communities, ecological systems, and sustainable carbon finance.
Space Technology as a Bridge for Climate Governance
One of the key drivers behind the project’s cross-sector integration is Dr Tsung-Sheng Cheng, Director of the Education Office at the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA). Dr Cheng has long been engaged in space science education and interagency knowledge translation, with a focus on applying satellite and remote sensing technologies to global sustainability challenges. By integrating satellite remote sensing, ground-based sampling, carbon cycle and ecological modeling and machine learning, the System-of-Systems framework significantly reduces the need for intensive field plots while maintaining scientific accuracy. The approach enables large-area measurement, long-term monitoring, transparent methodologies; and publicly verifiable data-features increasingly demanded by international climate governance and carbon market standards.
Prof Shu-Mei Wang in National Taiwan University noted that conventional carbon sink and ecosystem monitoring relies heavily on dense field sampling, often requiring one plot every 0.1 to 0.5 hectares. Such approaches are labour-intensive, costly and poorly suited to large-scale landscapes, long-term monitoring, or cross-regional comparisons. These limitations have been a major barrier preventing many nature-based carbon projects from accessing international carbon markets or achieving high levels of verification credibility.
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