The United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD Programme) was launched in 2008 and builds on the technical expertise of FAO, coupled with the expertise of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Environment. The UN-REDD Programme supports nationally led REDD+ processes and promotes the informed and meaningful involvement of all stakeholders, including indigenous peoples and other forest-dependent communities, in national and international REDD+ implementation. Under the UN-REDD Programme, country-readiness efforts have begun to show significant results that should lead to results-based actions for results-based payments. The UN-REDD Programme also offers various delivery mechanisms that provide flexibility to match a country’s needs with the required support, and complement the contributions of other initiatives.

FAO offers countries technical assistance in building capacities in Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of greenhouse gas emissions and in developing robust National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS) for REDD+, which simultaneously meet broader monitoring needs for sustainable development. FAO also supports implementation of REDD+ mitigation measures contained in individual countries’ National REDD+ Strategies or Action Plans — measures that comprise key elements of the UN-REDD Programme Strategic Framework for 2016–2020.  Partner countries can also turn to FAO for support in facing challenges related to developing an enabling environment for REDD+. This can include legal preparedness and capacity development, identifying best practices for sustainable forest management, governance, and land-tenure regimes. In that regard, the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security has been widely promoted. 

FAO’s technical assistance in the forestry and land-use sectors includes:

Help for countries in building institutional capacity to support the design and implementation of multipurpose forest inventories that also include forest carbon estimates in the context of REDD+ readiness.

• Bolivia, Ecuador, Panama, Papua New Guinea and Paraguay prepared their forest-cover maps with FAO support for the design, methodology and piloting of their NFI. Similarly, NFI results from Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, the Republic of Congo and Zambia are ready for use by these countries for their REDD+ reporting and forest management, prepared with FAO support. 
• Eleven Pacific Island countries have, through FAO’s assistance, developed capacities through trainings on Satellite Land Monitoring Systems and NFI.
• Support for implementation of mitigation actions identified by countries as crucial for REDD+ (e.g. land-use planning in Bolivia and Peru; SFM and community-based forest management in Ethiopia and Zambia; fire management and restoration in Chile). 

Assistance with governance assessments, legal preparedness, land tenure, safeguards and sustainable forest management.

• Support for safeguards which has contributed to countries’ evolving approaches to safeguards and SIS. This includes addressing how countries have critically linked these interventions to their development of REDD+ NS/APs, and their constituent mitigation actions put in place to address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. Ecuador, for example, has made progress on its safeguards component of the national REDD+ strategy with FAO support. Safeguards criteria and SIS information requirements, related to existing institutional, legal and policy frameworks, have been identified and adjusted.

Assistance with capacity building for development of land-use investment plans - including in forestry.

• Zambia has developed a national REDD+ strategy that provides the overall vision, measures and actions to address deforestation and forest degradation. A REDD+ investment plan, being developed jointly with Zambia's Forest Investment Programme (FIP), UNDP and UNEP, is underway and could be used to leverage resources and investments for the country.

Facilitating South-South exchanges and knowledge generation through best practices and lessons learned, as well as guidance material and software applications to assist with monitoring and with national forest and greenhouse gas inventories.

• A South-South exchange on tenure issues, shared by experts from Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe provided lessons and best practices to address REDD+ and tenure issues. Meanwhile, exchanges between Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal and Viet Nam led to strengthened capacity for development of the FREL/REL and facilitated dialogue and information-sharing. 
• An important example of South-South exchange comes also from Latin America and Mesoamerica, where FAO played a key role in facilitating the dialogue and collaboration on NFI, FREL and SLMS among various countries (including Paraguay and Ecuador) as well as in the creation and strengthening of the Center of Excellence on forest monitoring for Mesoamerica (Centro de Excelencia virtual en monitoreo forestal para Mesoamerica) and the related collaboration among Mesoamerican countries on this and other topics.