A carbon-only approach to REDD+ won’t work. It will not help either climate or forests. Ex-post greenhouse gas emissions reductions will not be achieved if investments are not made in the environmental sustainability and social equity of the policies and measures adopted to address the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. The success and legitimacy of REDD+ depends not so much on the ability of implementing actors to minimize negative environmental and social risks, but more on its potential to deliver and maximize multiple social and environmental benefits, such as conservation of biodiversity, maintenance of ecosystem services and livelihood benefits for rural poor communities. The sustained capacity of forests to sequester carbon over the long term (and in a changing climate) will depend on their stable ecological functioning, as well as whether stakeholders, particularly local communities, have more of an incentive to protect forests that to cut them down.These guidelines bring clarity and step-by-step guidance on what, why and how to design, and effectively implement, a country’s national safeguards response. In doing so, the CSA takes the REDD+ safeguards dialogue from a high-level international discussion of principles of intent to one of operational actions of content. The CSA also offers guidance on establishing systems for providing information on how the Cancun (and other) safeguards are being addressed and respected; information which, of course, is a prerequisite to obtain results-based payments under the REDD+ mechanism.

Type of Case
Printed publication (book, sourcebook, journal article…)

Publisher
SNV – The Netherlands Development Organisation, REDD+ Programme

Biome
All

Forest Type
All forest types (natural and planted)

Primary Designated Function
All