The paper reviews a number of challenges associated with reducing degradation and its related emissions through national approaches to REDD+ under UNFCCC policy. It proposes that in many countries, it may in the short run be easier to deal with the kinds of degradation that result from locally driven community over-exploitation of forest for livelihoods, than from selective logging or fire control. Such degradation is low-level, but chronic, and is experienced over very large forest areas. Community forest management programmes tend to result not only in reduced degradation, but also in forest enhancement; moreover they are often popular, and do not require major political shifts. In principle these approaches therefore offer a quick start option for REDD+. Developing reference emissions levels for low-level locally driven degradation is difficult however given that stock losses and gains are too small to be identified and measured using remote sensing, and that in most countries there is little or no forest inventory data available. We therefore propose that forest management initiatives at the local level, such as those promoted by community forest management programmes, should monitor, and be credited for, only the net increase in carbon stock over the implementation period, as assessed by ground level surveys at the start and end of the period. This would also resolve the problem of nesting (ensuring that all credits are accounted for against the national reference emission level), since communities and others at the local level would be rewarded only for increased sequestration, while the national reference emission level would deal only with reductions in emissions from deforestation and degradation.

This report compiled by AIDESEP, FENAMAD, CARE (regional and national indigenous organisations) and FPP collates the experiences of indigenous peoples’ organisations with REDD+ policies and projects in Peru. The report analyses the policies and strategies of the Peruvian government, examines the roles of international agencies and scrutinises pilot REDD+ initiatives already underway in indigenous territories.

In Vietnam, forests have been under state stewardship for a long time. Degradation of forest resources under state management together with the high costs of forest protection has led to increased involvement of local people in forest management. Since the early 1990s, the Government of Vietnam (GOV) has been promoting the allocation of forest rights to local people as the foundation for development of community forest management (CFM). The initiative, known as Forest Land Allocation (FLA), has been undertaken in various parts of the country, with mixed results. This raises an important question: how can forestland allocation be improved so that community forestry can both support local livelihoods and provide environmental protection? 

With funding from the British Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the School of International Development at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and RECOFTC – The Center for People and Forests, a small initiative on “Property Reforms and Forest Rights in Vietnam” was undertaken. The initiative aims to identify key issues influencing the success or failure of community forestry in various parts of the country and to discuss implications for policies on forest management and rural development.

The document at hand is a product of a group of carefully selected researchers, policy experts, and practitioners seeking to share their experiences and viewpoints based on previous or on-going work. It is by no means a comprehensive discussion of all the issues related to community forest management in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it is hoped that the issues brought up by the authors in the document will shed light on some of the important aspects of community forest management in Vietnam and can serve as the starting point for further development of community forest management in the new context in Vietnam.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has provided a platform to the international community to negotiate and take measures for climate change mitigation. REDD+ is emerged as an incentive based mitigation mechanism to address the potential role of forestry up to 17-25 % reported share towards GHG emissions reduction.

is a low forest cover country but has a significant potential for REDD+ for which it has a long list of endeavors to enter into the global mainstream in order to bring future REDD+ into its practice and for the benefit of local community together with global contribution towards mitigation response. This paper analyzes the global dynamics, existing national and international policies and local governance setup, and aims at providing policy recommendations through a framework of actions to meet all requirements of REDD+, especially for the setting up of good governance model moving from Readiness (2011-2012) to Mainstreaming phase from 2013 onward.

REDD+ and the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) process are two forest related initiatives that can be mutually supportive. For example, FLEGT can support REDD+ by promoting improved forest governance and law enforcement, addressing some of the causes of deforestation and forest degradation, and by establishing effective multi-stakeholder processes. In turn, REDD+ can strengthen FLEGT through increased momentum to support forest sector reform, access to finance and increased political attention.

Policies to control greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from tropical deforestation and degradation have become a major focus of the international climate change negotiations over the last five years. Much of the debate has centered on the potential for developing new international financial systems through which countries, or the actors within countries, are rewarded for reducing GHG emissions from deforestation and forest degradation compared to a reference emissions level (REDD plus). This paper focuses mainly on questions surrounding the interpretation of rights to emissions reductions in project based and market based REDD plus systems, and national systems where governments link the distribution of REDD plus finance to local level ownership of emissions reductions. It also consider some of the implications that all national REDD plus systems may raise in terms of how governments transfer responsibilities to their citizens and the incentive effects that potentially large financial flows may have on existing rights regimes. The paper aims to address some of the confusion in understanding legal issues surrounding carbon rights. It also considers the implications for the rural poor in different contexts, given that they often have weak rights, an inability to enforce their rights and that REDD plus legal systems could add a new layer of complexity to an already complicated legal landscape in many countries.www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/main

The Jurisdictional and Nested REDD Initiative will develop rules and requirements for the integrated, jurisdiction-wide crediting of activities that Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).

Under the JNRI initiative, global advisors and technical experts will draft guidelines that can be used by jurisdictions seeking to create integrated accounting frameworks for crediting REDD projects and programs across their territories. Currently, there are no regulatory or institutional frameworks for the integrated, or nested, accounting of REDD projects and programs across jurisdictions.

A survey of the tools and methods being used to estimate, measure, monitor and disseminate the impact of climate finance

Report on CIGA's workshop on FCPF