In the framework of “Armenia's Third Biennial Update Report to the UNFCCC” UNDP-GEF Project, the “Development of the National greenhouse gas Inventory for Agriculture, forestry, other land use (AFOLU) sector" workshop was held on 25 February 2022, which was aimed at presenting and discussing the incomplete and missing data and the current issues of calculating national emissions coefficients.

Expert in Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (ARFOLU) sector Anastas Aghazaryan presented the existing problems and gaps of the sector, particularly emphasizing that:

• most of the data are expert assessments without measurements or accounting, which means that the data are statistically uncertain and emissions coefficients have low representativeness and reliability;
• lack of numbering system for livestock identification, limited access to slaughterhouses, and lack of registration system for slaughtered animals, which does not allow to have clear indicators on the number of animals;
• official statistics on land classification have in some cases been replaced by expert assessments. This refers to the classification of lands according to climate and ecological zones, biophysical characteristics, types of human activities, etc.;
• existing problems in the assessment of emissions from manure management come from lack of measurement-based data and low representativeness and reliability of data obtained from sample surveys.
• Forestry expert Vahe Matsakyan presented the issues of developing the national inventory of the "Forest lands" sector. He stressed that the registration of forest areas and inventory processes are not coordinated, as a result of which some data are missing, and some have great uncertainty.

The total area of ​​the forests, the average annual growth of the forests, the level of carbon in the area and the soil are the missing data that need to be calculated and generalized as a result of the forest inventory.

As for the uncertain data, they are the volume of timber coming out of the forest, the origin of the timber and its suitability. For example, in 2017, according to official data, 82743 cubic meters of firewood were used, and according to the Energy Balance 665828 cubic meters of wood were used.

The workshop was concluded with discussions and several recommendations.

Nona Budoyan, Head of Department of Climate Policy, suggested developing a guidebook for GHG inventory, which will be approved by the Minister's order and will clearly indicate the areas and the coefficients for the calculations. Responding to this suggestion, UNDP Climate Change Programme Coordinator Diana Harutyunyan mentioned that the main document for GHG Inventory is the IPCC Guide, which provides a united approach for all countries and there is no need to localize or approve it while defining data sources and their calculation methodology is the objective of the "Building Armenia’s National Transparency Framework under Paris Agreement" project. Expert Aram Gabrielyan mentioned that the guidebook can be organizational, defining responsibilities among the agencies.

Narine Hakobyan, Head of the Department of Land and Underground Resources Policy, noted that the data entry must be done correctly. This depends on the existing database, which is not in good condition at the moment. Currently, the creation of an integrated inventory is underway, and within its framework, the land and forest databases are supposed to be transferred to a digital system, and in this respect, the communities will also be strengthened to carry out their functions on land resources data. It means that the reliability of entered data will be increased since the accuracy of data coming from communities will make it possible to have more reliable results. The development of the integrated inventory is planned to be completed in 2024.

Speaking about the inaccuracies of the data, Diana Harutyunyan mentioned that in two different reports submitted by the government to international organizations (International Energy Agency, UNFCCC), two very different numbers of the same indicator (firewood) are used. One number is taken from household surveys conducted by the Statistical Committee, and the other is received from the Ministry of Environment. In this regard, the participants started a discussion on the methodology of the surveys, the representativeness of the sampling, and the professional skills of the interviewers.

The need for institutional solutions and the importance of the active role of state agencies in data collection were emphasized again during the discussions.

Within the framework of the "Building Armenia’s National Transparency Framework under Paris Agreement" project, discussions on the availability of ARFOLU sector statistics, as well as the elimination or reduction of data gaps will continue with relevant stakeholders, in particular with the Statistical Committee for development of recommendations and improvement of indicators. The requirement to present gender-disaggregated data in CP reports will also be taken into account.

The workshop was attended by representatives of research and specialized organizations, sector experts, statisticians, and representatives of government agencies. Out of a total of 59 participants, 27 joined online, 58 (34 people) were women.