REDD+ capacity building essential for implementing Paris Agreement, say experts
24 November 2016
According to speakers at the side-event, which was titled “Enabling results-based payments for REDD+ in tropical forests: lessons from reference setting”, more capacity and resources are needed to sustain and improve the quality of forest reference emission levels (FRELs) and forest reference levels (FRLs) for achieving Article 5 of the Paris Agreement, which focuses on the role of forests in addressing mitigation and adaptation challenges.
The following REDD+ experts spoke at the side-event:
- Dr Maria Jose Sanchez, Scientific Director, Basque Centre for Climate Change, Spain.
- Dr Yasumasa Hirata, Director, REDD+ Research and Development Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Japan.
- Ms Novia Widyaningtyas, Head of REDD+ Division, Directorate General of Climate Change, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Indonesia.
- Dr Elizabeth Philip, Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Malaysia.
- Mr MRV/FRL Focal point, Cambodia REDD+ Programme, Ministry of Environment, Cambodia.
- Mr Kwame Agyei, Senior Manager, National REDD+ Secretariat, Forestry Commission, Ghana.
The side-event reviewed the challenges in accessing results-based payments for REDD+ and presented overviews of 15 proposed FRELs/FRLs submitted by tropical countries in terms of the scope of REDD+ activities, carbon pools, national/subnational scale, forest definition, and the historical trend period for results-based actions.
Recognizing the increasing demand for FRELs/FRLs of high technical quality, the side-event shared lessons arising from technical assessments of proposed FRELs/FRLs. These include the importance of: transparency and completeness in FREL/FRL submissions; consistency between FRELs/FRLs and forest monitoring systems; and comparability over time in defining forests in differing national circumstances.
The side-event also canvassed the technical issue of measuring forest degradation, and it heard experiences in constructing FRELs/FRLs in Cambodia, Ghana, Indonesia and Malaysia towards the full implementation of REDD+. It was noted that constructing FRELs/FRLs is an important aspect of REDD+ implementation, involving a step-by-step analysis by national and local experts and consultations with multiple stakeholders.
The side-event noted the importance of the principle of “transparency, accuracy, completeness, consistency and comparability” and the concept of “practicability and cost-effectiveness” in measurement, reporting and verification.
The side-event was organized jointly with the REDD+ Research and Development Center at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Japan, with the support of the Basque Centre for Climate Change of Spain; the Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Indonesia; the Ministry of Environment of Cambodia; the Forest Research Institute Malaysia; and the Ghana Forestry Commission. It had about 80 participants, including government officials and representatives of bilateral aid agencies, research institutes and non-governmental organizations.