REDD after Copenhagen: the way forward

Workshops in Africa and Asia in early March are charting a way forward on REDD and the role of other land uses in the fight against climate change.

The workshops in Nairobi, Kenya, 1-3 March 2010, and Hue City, Vietnam, 8-10 March 2010, are bringing together negotiators and key stakeholders from 15 African and 8 Asian nations to tap into expertise of World Agroforestry Centre scientists and peers from around the world.

First on the agenda is to analyze the outcomes of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen with regard to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD) and reducing emissions from other land uses.

Regional perspectives from Latin America, Africa, and Asia will be presented, and experiences will be shared on pilot projects for achieving cost-effective and verifiable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Information on REDD methodologies and technical issues will be shared, and the opportunities and challenges for funding REDD projects, such as through carbon markets, will be discussed.

In charting a course for the coming year, negotiators and stakeholders will consider some of the issues that will be at play in the lead up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, to be held in Mexico City in December 2010. In particular, they will consider strategies for kick-starting demonstration projects to encourage ‘learning by doing'.

The background paper, REDD After Copenhagen: The Way Forward, (download the English version or the French version) has been prepared in conjunction with the workshops by organizers: International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and the Alternatives to Slash and Burn Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins at the World Agroforestry Centre.

The Kenya and Vietnam workshops are a follow-up to similar workshops held towards the end of 2009 in preparation for the Copenhagen conference. Both have been delivered with the generous support of the Government of Norway.

Effective participation by developing countries is key to a REDD mechanism that supports rural development, respects national sovereignty and stakeholder participation, and contributes to emissions reduction objectives.

For more information, visit http://www.iisd.org/climate/land_use/redd/ and www.asb.cgiar.org or contact Vanessa Meadu, ASB v.meadu@cgiar.org or Stefan Jungcurt, IISD sjungcurt@iisd.ca