What is the UN-REDD Programme, again? The UN-REDD Programme organized its Tenth Policy Board meeting from 26 to 27 June in Indonesia. The event was attended by 107 participants from more than 28 countries, including representatives from the Programme’s partner and donor countries along with permanent observers from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, and representatives of indigenous and civil society organizations. Five information sessions preceded the event covering the Policy Board Review, gender, the withdrawal of COONAPIP (the National Coordinating Body of Indigenous Peoples in Panama) from the UN-REDD Panama Programme, Support to Community-Based REDD+ and the UN-REDD strategy to support local communities and indigenous peoples and Indonesia’s Experience Integrating Participatory Governance Assessment (PGA) into its REDD+ framework. Plenty of food for thought and decision making. Issues surrounding indigenous peoples were high on the agenda. It is therefore not surprising that on 29 June an opinion piece appeared in the Jakarta Post. Prepared by Abdon Nababan, the Secretary General of the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of Indonesia’s Archipelago (AMAN), and Betanio Chiquidama, the leader of COONAPIP, it highlighted the role that indigenous peoples play in safeguarding the world’s forests. The authors invited governments and the private sector to partner with them and offered their “centuries-old knowledge of how to care for and protect forests”. Overall, a very positive, thoughtful and constructive message. Unfortunately, it had one flaw. The authors identified UN-REDD as “a global strategy of the United Nations aimed at preventing the destruction of forests in 46 tropical nations”. Many people continue to struggle with distinguishing REDD+ from the UN-REDD Programme. Obviously, we have done a very poor job in explaining what the UN-REDD Programme is, and what it is not. Let’s try to do this now. The UN-REDD Programme is not a “global strategy”. Instead it defines itself as the United Nations collaborative initiative on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) in developing countries. It supports nationally-led REDD+ processes and promotes the meaningful involvement of all stakeholders, including Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent communities, in national and international REDD+ implementation. Note that the text is copied directly from the UN-REDD Programme website, where you can find plenty of useful information. You can learn that the Programme also supports non-tropical countries, like Mongolia, and that the number of partners just jumped up to 47. In contrast, REDD+ comprises five activities that developing countries are encouraged to implement under the UNFCCC to mitigate climate change. These activities include reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation as well as the conserving, enhancing and sustainably managing forest carbon stocks. In return for the successful implementation of these activities, developing countries will receive positive incentives from developed countries. The purpose of this message is not to promote the UN-REDD Programme (or, indeed, REDD+!). Instead, it is our contribution to a better understanding of what the Programme is all about. And we hope that this brief message ends up on as many websites as the opinion piece by Abdon Nababan and Betanio Chiquidama.
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 06:41:43 +0000
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