Publication

The Policy Brief summarizes the key messages of the GFEP report “Forests, Climate, Biodiversity and People: Assessing a Decade of REDD+”, and includes lessons learnt over the past ten years of REDD+ implementation, as well as outcomes of a stakeholder consultation. The following key findings are highlighted:

• Ongoing deforestation and forest degradation alter the critical role of forests in the global carbon cycle.
• REDD+ governance is distributed across a complex landscape of institutions with different sources of authority and power dynamics that influence its outcomes.
• REDD+ plays an important role in climate change mitigation, but this role is limited given the magnitude of the problem and actions required in other GHG emitting sectors.
• Safeguards to address social and environmental outcomes are complex and have yet to be fully operationalised in REDD+ implementation, reporting and accountability.
• Technological improvements support better quantification of forest and carbon changes, but measurement, reporting and verification of both carbon and non-carbon outcomes still need to be improved.
• Proliferation of global initiatives aimed at halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation creates complexities and burdens, but also offers opportunities for synergies with REDD+.

One major conclusion from this report is that while REDD+ has provided a convenient umbrella for many forest and land use related activities aimed at reducing deforestation and forest degradation – and associated greenhouse gas emissions – the complexities involved in the nexus between forests/land use and climate are profound.