Forests, Climate, Biodiversity and People: Assessing a Decade of REDD+

In 2012, IUFRO launched the GFEP report “Understanding Relationships between Biodiversity, Carbon, Forests and People: The Key to Achieving REDD+ Objectives”. Since then, much progress has been made in the development and implementation of REDD+ as a means to address the climate crisis.

At the same time, there has been significant development and refinement of the evidence base needed to critically assess how REDD+ is being implemented, its potential and actual role in halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation, as well as its implications for affected communities, conservation of biodiversity and enhancement of forest-related ecosystem services.

In light of this, a thorough scientific review of the REDD+ framework, its impacts and its successes in meeting the related goals, is a timely response to the ongoing global discussions. This report titled “Forests, Climate, Biodiversity and People: Assessing a Decade of REDD+” revisits the questions examined in the earlier GFEP assessment, and analyses and synthesizes scientific information published and lessons learned by 2022.

The team of authors for this study was selected based on the 2012 Global Expert Panel on Biodiversity, Forest Management, and REDD+.

Policy Brief

Forests, Climate, Biodiversity and People: Assessing a Decade of REDD+

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.

Stakeholder Consultations

A DECADE OF REDD+: STAKEHOLDER PERCEPTIONS OF ITS IMPLEMENTATION

Back-to-back with the GFEP report "Forest, Climate, Biodiversity and People: Assessing a Decade of REDD+", stakeholder consultations were carried out in Asia and Latin America. These consultations helped to identify a number of factors that, from the point of view of the stakeholders, need to be improved in future REDD+ activities. The present publication synthesises the responses and comments from the nearly 200 stakeholders interviewed that provided their opinion on REDD+ implementation on the ground. Their opinions refer to:

• Major social factors to be addressed
• Major economic factors to be addressed
• Major environmental factors to be addressed
• Major governance factors to be addressed
• How could GFEP’s report on REDD+ contribute to policymaking
• How would stakeholders use GFEP’s report on REDD+

Despite the intrinsic differences between both regions, the factors that need to be improved (according to the stakeholders interviewed), are similar.