REDD+ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation

REDD+ initiatives

On the ground, at the regional level and at a global scale, collaboration among various stakeholders (government, communities, UN agencies, academia, and private sector) is key to achieving REDD+ goals. 

The UN-REDD Programme is the longstanding, major United Nations cooperative arrangement under which FAO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and UN Environment are combining their strengths and technical capacities, working across sectors and with multiple stakeholders. 

In addition to support through the UN-REDD programme, FAO also works with other initiatives in building capacity for REDD+. For example, the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI) is a collaboration of UNDP, FAO, the World Bank, six Central African countries plus a coalition of donors that aims to support governments in the region to implement reforms and enhance investments to halt drivers of tropical deforestation. FAO also collaborates with the Central Africa Forests Commission (COMIFAC) through the Congo Basin Forest Fund (CBFF) and in conjunction with the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE), to provide technical assistance to COMIFAC countries for the development of their national forest monitoring systems. COMIFAC, established to support sustainable management of the Congo Basin's forest ecosystems, includes Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Sao Tomé and Principé. 

As well, FAO works with a range of multilateral agencies that support countries. These include the World Bank (e.g. Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), Forest Investment Programme, BioCarbon Fund and PROFOR. In collaboration with the World Bank and the government of Uganda, for example, FAO is supporting the project “Implementation of a national reference scenario and inventory of forest resources for REDD+ readiness in Uganda”. In Ethiopia, FAO is supporting "Implementation of a national forest monitoring and MRV system for REDD+ readiness in Ethiopia”. 

FAO also engages with countries to develop requests for support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and as a Green Climate Fund readiness delivery partner, FAO will work with countries under the Readiness and Preparatory Support Programme, a cross-cutting programme aimed at strengthening country access to the Fund. 

FAO formally joined the NDC Partnership at UNFCCC COP22 in Marrakech to improve support to countries. The NDC Partnership is a global coalition of developing and developed countries and international institutes working to ensure that countries receive the technical and financial support they need to deliver on their NDCs swiftly and effectively. 

FAO also collaborates on thematic areas of REDD+. On the technical topic of governance, for example, FAO’s Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) Programme has been working since 2008 to improve forest governance by supporting the European Commission's Action Plan on FLEGT. Working with the Forest and Farm Facility, FAO aims to connect forest and farm producer organizations with governments to make landscape restorationand an end to deforestationa reality.

In the area of forest monitoring and reporting, FAO is collaborating with the Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) team on a project under the Capacity Building Initiative for Transparency (CBIT) trust fund of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) which aims at strengthening the institutional and technical capacities of developing countries to collect, analyze and disseminate forest-related data. It will support countries in meeting the enhanced transparency framework (ETF) requirements of the Paris Agreement and contribute information necessary to track progress made in implementing and achieving nationally determined contributions (NDCs). In addition, FAO is hosting the System for Earth Observation Data Access, Processing and Analysis for Land Monitoring (SEPAL), a cloud-based computing platform that delivers satellite data and develops free tools for forest monitoring for REDD+. It is already being tested by a number of developing countries.