In 2012, IUFRO launched the GFEP report “Understanding Relationships between Biodiversity, Carbon, Forests and People: The Key to Achieving REDD+ Objectives”. Since then, much progress has been made in the development and implementation of REDD+ as a means to address the climate crisis.

At the same time, there has been significant development and refinement of the evidence base needed to critically assess how REDD+ is being implemented, its potential and actual role in halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation, as well as its implications for affected communities, conservation of biodiversity and enhancement of forest-related ecosystem services.

In light of this, a thorough scientific review of the REDD+ framework, its impacts and its successes in meeting the related goals, is a timely response to the ongoing global discussions. This report titled “Forests, Climate, Biodiversity and People: Assessing a Decade of REDD+” revisits the questions examined in the earlier GFEP assessment, and analyses and synthesizes scientific information published and lessons learned by 2022.

The team of authors for this study was selected based on the 2012 Global Expert Panel on Biodiversity, Forest Management, and REDD+.