What is REDD+?
Forests and climate change
Given that up to 18% of global GHG emissions are caused by forest destruction and damage, forest protection and restoration must play a central role in the fight against climate change. We cannot avoid dangerous climate change without quickly halting then reversing forest loss and degradation.
For further information on the role of forests and terrestrial habitats in regulating the global climate, please see our Forests and ecosystem carbon page.
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation – REDD+
REDD describes the processes of reducing GHG emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. REDD+ is a term used to expand the scope of REDD activities beyond avoided deforestation and degradation activities to include forest restoration, rehabilitation, assisted natural regeneration, sustainable management and/or afforestation/reforestation. Biodiversity conservation and community benefits are optimised within this framework, which may also include supplementary carbon sequestration strategies (e.g. reforestation, agro-forestry components) as appropriate to site conditions.
REDD+ emerged from a concept tabled by Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica for the Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN) at the 11th annual UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP-11). On 9 December 2005, the UNFCCC Parties agreed to begin a process of further consideration of REDD+ with the objective of finalizing recommendations by COP-13 in 2007.
The fact that CfRN, a group of countries supporting key tropical forests, tabled the REDD+ concept gave substantial weight to the proposal. Recognising that dangerous climate change could not be avoided unless forest loss and degradation was addressed, the CfRN proposed that negotiators consider mechanisms to deal with the issue.
Soon after, the Stern review reinforced the point that REDD+ could have a very high positive impact on forests if deployed across all tropical forest nations. Furthermore, preventing the loss and degradation of forests can be taken forward relatively quickly and at comparatively low cost. It therefore offers a way of achieving early gains in addressing climate change.
An international framework for the delivery of REDD+ is emerging, in part from work by the United Nations REDD+ Programme (UN-REDD) and the World Bank Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (WB-FCPF). The focus is now on the development of national-level policy frameworks for future REDD+ delivery. In addition, several state and private foundations are supporting both policy work and REDD+ pilot projects at specific forest sites.
REDD+ delivers many additional benefits
But perhaps the greatest attraction of REDD+ is its multiple benefits. Forests not only store carbon. They are also storehouses of biodiversity, and underpin the livelihoods of many of the world’s poorest people. Successfully halting forest loss and degradation is thus key to addressing many other social priorities.
WLT REDD+ projects are independently validated
To ensure they are genuine, the benefits of a given REDD+ project can be evaluated by a third party, and, if the effects meet certain defined standards, the project can be validated by an independent body. Subsequent performance is then regularly verified.
Globally, there are several independent bodies that validate REDD+ projects meeting their defined criteria. The WLT is supporting the Paraguay Forest Conservation Project, which has been validated by the Communities, Carbon and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA). As well as satisfying all the standard CCBA criteria the project was awarded a ‘Gold’ level of validation in recognition of the outstanding biodiversity co-benefit is achieves.
In view of these benefits, the WLT actively promotes REDD+ projects for larger-scale initiatives, already being involved in one validated initiative in Paraguay and participating in the development of another in India. REDD+ techniques and approaches are also central to the smaller offsetting projects delivered through our Carbon Balanced programme.