Posted on 13 December
2013 - Washington, DC: In a major victory
for the world’s tropical forests, the more
than 1.6 billion people that are dependent
on them, and the Earth’s fragile climate,
global leaders have agreed on a much anticipated
package of elements that will unlock finance
to reward tropical forest nations for reducing
carbon emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation (REDD+).
Delegates of the UN
global climate meeting voted in favor of
REDD+ at their November meeting in Warsaw.
REDD+ will fight climate change by addressing
20 per cent of global carbon emissions –
the total caused by forest loss, and more
than that caused by all the cars, trains,
planes and ships in the world.
WWF has worked towards
realizing REDD+ for many years, engaging
both on the ground in the key tropical forest
nations of Indonesia, the Democratic Republic
of Congo, Peru, Colombia, the Guyanas and
Brazil, as well as at the global policy
and finance levels.
Our work has included
working with indigenous peoples and local
communities to develop REDD+ readiness activities
in areas representing over 15.5 million
hectares of tropical forest, and engaging
with international REDD+ donors and funders
to push for hundreds of millions of US dollars
in support for tropical forest nations to
prepare for REDD+. Areas of this work and
the important lessons learned generated
from it are featured in our new report Building
REDD+ for People and Nature.
“This is a major milestone
in the history of conservation,” said Lasse
Gustavsson, WWF-International Executive
Director of Conservation.
“With REDD+ a reality,
a global system now exists for tropical
forest nations to be financially rewarded
for sustainably managing their forests in
ways that fight climate change, conserve
biodiversity and safeguard the livelihoods
of the indigenous peoples and local communities
that depend on them,” he said.
Parties to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (UNFCCC) have worked for eight years
to build and approve a global mechanism
for REDD+.
To come to an agreement
in Warsaw, negotiators overcame differences
on key financial issues such as payments
for performances as well as technical issues
such as reference levels and monitoring,
reporting and verification (MRV).
Significant aspects
of the REDD+ mechanism that WWF supports
include financing for all phases of REDD+
from readiness, capacity building and piloting
through to results-based actions; the link
between the respect of social and environmental
safeguards and access to support; and the
development of an information hub through
which the results of payments for REDD+
activities will be shared.
“This victory for REDD+
was hard fought over eight years,” said
Josefina Brana-Varela, WWF Forest and Climate
Programme Policy Director and WWF REDD+
representative at the UN global climate
meeting.
“Inside the global climate
meetings delegates have worked hard to put
their differences aside to design and agree
on key financial and technical aspects of
REDD+, while outside others, including WWF,
have been working on the ground in key tropical
forest countries to build the capacity to
deliver REDD+,” she said.
“But the work has only
just begun,” added Brana-Varela. “Now developed
nations need to step up to fund REDD+. With
global commitment and agreement on REDD+
in place, the funds must follow. WWF is
calling for swift action from global leaders
to ensure REDD+ is funded to the level needed
to deliver as expected.”
To learn more about
the outcome of REDD+ at this year’s global
climate meeting and the details of some
of the key technical decisions, view our
free webinar, presented by key WWF REDD+
experts.
For more information
about WWF’s efforts to reduce emissions
from deforestation and forest degradation,
visit: bit.ly/WWFforestclimate.
Note: WWF made the decision
to take part in a mass civil society walkout
of this year’s UN global climate meeting
in an effort to draw attention to the lack
of ambition from attendees on key global
climate issues. As part of this decision,
WWF placed an embargo on publicly commenting
about the climate meeting. This embargo
has now been lifted, and for this reason,
WWF is now commenting on the outcomes of
the global climate meeting, including the
realization of REDD+.
