Download our new Guide for REDD-plus Negotiators - updated after the Cancun Climate Conference. 

The purpose of this guide is to assist developing country negotiators and others who are working on REDD-plus. This is an updated version of the guide that was released in October 2010.

In November 2010, Plan Vivo Stakeholders gathered in Edinburgh to discuss and shape the future of Plan Vivo.

Access the documents here

The FAO has released its ninth biennial report on the state of the world's forests. The report takes a holistic view by examining how forests support livelihoods in multiple ways.

Chapter 1: The state of forest resources - a regional analysis

Chapter 2: Developing sustainable forest industries

Chapter 3: The role of forests in climate change adaptation and mitigation

Chapter 4: The local value of forests

Visit the website here and download the pdf here

Understanding and minimizing the transaction costs of policy implementation are critical for reducing tropical forest losses. As the international community prepares to launch REDD+, a global initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from tropical deforestation, policymakers need to pay attention to the transactions costs associated with negotiating, monitoring and enforcing contracts between governments and donors. The existing institutional design for REDD+ relies heavily on central government interventions in program countries. Analyzing new data on forest conservation outcomes, we identify several problems with this centralized approach to forest protection. We describe options for a more diversified policy approach that could reduce the full set of transaction costs and thereby improve the efficiency of the market-based approach for conservation.

The author argues that while governments will face trade-offs in deciding how to respond to climate change, they should not lose sight of the opportunities to capture synergies between approaches that meet both short-term and long-term objectives. Improved forest management is presented as a win-win solution that provides many such synergies, as well as opportunities for jointly advancing countries’ adaptation and mitigation objectives.  The author also emphasizes that governments must inform citizens of the adaptation and mitigation choices ahead, and put in place democratic processes to enable meaningful public participation.

At the UN-REDD Programme's joint side event at COP16 on 2 December, 2010, the Programme launched its new publication entitled, "Perspectives on REDD+".

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (REDD+) is a policy mechanism being negotiated under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from developing countries through the sustainable management of forests, while providing co-benefits of biodiversity conservation and livelihood support. Implementation challenges include linking remote sensing and national forest inventories of carbon stocks, to local implementation and measuring carbon loss from forest degradation. Community-based forest monitoring can help overcome some of these challenges. We show that local people can collect forest condition data of comparable quality to trained scientists, at half the cost. We draw on our experience, to propose how and where local REDD+ monitoring can be established. Empowering communities to own and monitor carbon stocks could provide a rapid and cost-effective way of absorbing carbon dioxide emissions, whilst potentially contributing to local livelihoods and forest biodiversity conservation.

The governing bodies of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), the Forest Investment Program (FIP), and the UN-REDD Programme (UN-REDD) have mandated their secretariats to collaboratively develop options to enhance cooperation and coherence among REDD+ institutions in support of REDD+ efforts.

Watch the joint press conference on the sidelines of the Convention on Biological Diversity's 10th Conference of the Parties in Nagoya, Japan. Press conference led by co-chairs of the Aichi-Nagoya Ministerial Meeting of the REDD+Partnership: Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara (Japan) and Foreign Minister Samuel Abal (Papua New Guinea).

The History of REDD

A comprehensive summary of the History of REDD Policy, from its roots in the Kyoto Protocol, December 1997 to the final meetings of the AWGs and SBSTA before COP15 begins in Copenhagen in December 2009.

The white paper discusses the genesis of REDD policy and provides an overview of major turning points in the key issues of contention in international REDD policy:

• The scope of the definition of reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation,
• Carbon Accounting for REDD - Measurement
• Reporting and Verification
• The rights of indigenous people
• Financing options for REDD
• Institutional arrangements, "Should REDD be an NAMA or project based?"