The United Nations UN-REDD Programme is a collaborative initiative to prepare countries to participate in the global programmes on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). UNREDD builds on the convening power and expertise of FAO, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The Programme assists developing countries to prepare and implement their national REDD+ strategies and mechanisms to improve forest governance.

Conservation of forest biodiversity is of special relevance to Sri Lanka. The forests contain most of the biodiversity but is put at risk by continuous deforestation and forest degradation.

According to the last forest cover survey, 32% of the country (over 2.1 mil-lion hectares) is covered by dense natural forest. However, according to the last Forest Resource Assessment of FAO, it appears that 22,500 hectares of forest have been disappearing every year during the last decade. Sri Lanka can therefore be considered as a high deforestration country taking average rate of deforestation is about 1.1% per year while it is of 0.2% for the Asia Pacific region. In order to fight against forest losses the REDD+ mechanism was integrated into the climate change convention.

FAO’s role in the UN-REDD Programme is supporting countries on technical issues related to forestry and the development of cost-effective and reliable National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS). These include Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) processes for emission reduction which assists in implementation of REDD+ after the negotiations reach a final decision on the partnership. It also fosters improved guidance on Monitoring and MRV approaches, including consensus on principles and guidelines for MRV and training programmes.

South-South knowledge sharing and training programme

This training was held in Brazil on data interpretation for forest monitoring systems, as part of the capacity development initiatives under Sri Lanka’s UN-REDD Programme.

In order to enter the second phase of REDD+, a satellite national forest monitoring system (NFMS) must be in place. Available satellite imagery must therefore be identified along with the appropriate methodology and tools for mapping forest cover and change.

The training session aimed to transfer knowledge developed by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE) to the Sri Lanka team in order to feed into the development of a Sri Lankan satellite NFMS. The main aim was to present a common understanding of the tools which FAO, through the UN-REDD Programme, can make available to countries in order to develop their NFMS in the context of REDD+.