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Reducing Emissions from All Land Uses (REALU) Workshop in Vietnam

By Rhiannon Crowe and Hoang Minh Ha, ICRAF – Vietnam

On November 4, 2009 the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Vietnam, together with the General Department of Land Administration (GDLA) of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MONRE) organized a consultation workshop on Reducing Emissions from All Land Uses (REALU). This workshop is one of the activities in Vietnam for the NORAD funded ASB-ICRAF project from July 2009 – July 2010.

The objectives of the workshop were to: (i) develop a common understanding of the REALU project concept; (ii) discuss the initial findings by REALU Vietnam team on analysis, strategy and policy development for Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).in relation to all land uses in Vietnam landscape. The outputs of REALU will contribute to the climate change policy framework in the lead-up to Copenhagen in December 2009.

The REALU Architecture project will link knowledge with action by (i) providing analyses of cross-sectoral linkages in the tropical forest margins, based on long term engagement in Asia, Africa and Latin America, (ii) organizing multi-stakeholder events to explore implications for the design of an effective regime in the post-2012 context, and (iii) building the scientific and political basis for change through communicating and networking activities.

The goal of the project is to strengthen the ability of developing countries to build and implement effective strategies for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) within a context of rural development, national sovereignty, respect for local and indigenous peoples’ rights and integrity of national and global greenhouse gas accounting systems.

In the half day workshop, 25 participants from international and national governments and NGOs in Vietnam listened to four presentations of experts from ICRAF, GDLA, and Sustainable Forest Management Institute (SFMI). The topics covered were (i) Introduction of REALU and concepts RED, REDD, REDD+ and REALU; (ii) Land use and emission – a cross-sectoral perspective; (iii) Opportunity costs Analysis, and (iv) SFM and REDD+. During the discussion sections, the participants talked about the readiness of RED, REDD, REDD+ and REDD++ in Vietnam.

In the afternoon, REALU Vietnam experts groups (GDLA, SFMI, ICRAF, SNV) met to discuss the findings from the morning sessions and will use these comments to improve their report and products to deliver at at the upcoming UNFCCC Conference of Parties in Copenhagen (COP 15).

There was much interest and participation at the workshop. All of the attendees provided useful and practical feedback for REDD and REALU mechanisms that can be used in moving forward in Vietnam. Encouragingly, at the end of the day, one SNV international expert said ‘we believe ICRAF is doing some excellent work in this area’.

Not ready for REDD? – SciDev.Net

Practicalities of trading carbon and protecting forests make meeting high expectations for REDD hard, say Esteve Corbera and Manuel Estrada in an article on SciDev.net. A REDD deal will need to take account some of the challenges that developing country governments and project developers face for implementing successful REDD projects. These include pre-financing, certification of real emission reductions (also known as Monitoring, Reporting and Verification, MRV), understanding the real drivers of deforestation, and local capacity for implementing new forest management rules.

Read more: Not ready for REDD? – SciDev.Net.

Investing in REDD-plus: frameworks for financing and implementation

The Forests Dialogue, convened by Yale University, involves more than 100 stakeholders working towards building build an effective international mechanism for tackling the climate, community and biodiversity issues associated with deforestation. The new report, Investing in REDD-plus, reflects unique consensus amongst forest stakeholders across business, environmental and scientific sectors and from indigenous peoples and forest-based communities.

The document includes the following recommendations:

• REDD-plus should be designed as a performance-based mechanism that achieves real CO2 emission reductions by reducing deforestation and degradation, and through conservation, sustainable forest management and the enhancement of carbon stocks.
• A phased approach will enable REDD-plus to address the drivers of deforestation according to country-specific circumstances. Each phase of REDD-plus should be funded through a portfolio of financial resources that make optimal and coordinated use of both markets and funds, as well as other sources of finance.
• Establish clear financial accounting standards and regulations.
• A global oversight body is set up to mainstream activities with respect to carbon accounting and verification of performance against social, environmental and financial safeguards.
• Safeguards must guarantee equitable participation and distribution mechanisms for indigenous peoples and local communities as well as biodiversity conservation.

Read more:

• Investing in REDD-plus: Consensus on frameworks for the financing and implementation of REDD-plus [English / French / Spanish]
• Investing in REDD-plus: Executive Summary of TFD consensus [English / French / Spanish]

Comments on REDD+ Social & Environmental Standards

Draft REDD+ Social & Environmental Standards are now available for public review. Development of these standards is being facilitated by the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) and CARE International.

This initiative is developing standards that can be used by governments, NGOs, financing agencies and other stakeholders to design and implement REDD and other forest carbon programs that respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and generate significant social and biodiversity co-benefits. These standards will be designed to work for the new global REDD+ regime expected to emerge out of ongoing UNFCCC negotiations, that is for government-led programs implemented at national or state/provincial/regional level and for all forms of fund-based or market-based financing.

To review the standards, visit REDD+ Social & Environmental Standards.

REDD+ Institutional Options Assessment Report released

With support from the Government of Norway, the Meridian Institute has produced a follow-up assessment of concrete options for international institutional arrangements supporting a REDD+ agreement in Copenhagen and beyond. The assessment focusses on the institutional arrangements needed to administer, allocate, disburse, and monitor international REDD+ financing.

Source: Meridian Institute. 2009. “REDD+ Institutional Options Assessment. Developing an Efficient, Effective, and Equitable Institutional Framework for REDD+ under the UNFCCC.” Prepared by Charlotte Streck, Luis Gomez-Echeverri, Pablo Gutman, Cyril Loisel, and Jacob Werksman. Available at: http://www.redd-oar.org/IOA.html