Moving ahead with REDD+: challenges and opportunities

Moving ahead with Moving ahead with REDD+: significance REDD+: significance and challenges of and challenges of

the Warsaw the Warsaw Framework for Framework for

REDD+REDD+

Josefina Braña VarelaPolicy Director,

WWF Forest and Climate Programme

April 9, 2014IIED, London

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1. Overview of the Warsaw Framework for REDD+

2. Thoughts on the 3 negotiation tracks:• COP Work Program• Joint SBI/SBSTA process• SBSTA

3. Barriers for REDD+ Implementation

4. How to move ahead with REDD+?

5. Concluding thoughts

What you are going to hear in the next 30 minutes

AW RSAW FRAM WORK FOR RE EDD+

Thoughts on the COP Work Program on RBF

The adopted decision doesn’t fully resolve the COP Work Programme mandate of contributing to scale up finance for REDD+, however:

•It explicitly establishes a link between the GCF and REDD+;

•It creates and clarifies a pathway to access results-based finance;

•Sets the ball rolling for REDD+ countries to move towards implementation in the different phases;

•Keeps the options open for different sources of support, allows for flexibility;

•It represents an important building block for connecting REDD+ to the broader climate architecture

•Political will, ambition, and commitment will be key in the months to come to achieve a stronger decision that ensures finance for REDD+ in the medium and long term.

• Although the language used in this decision is rather soft, it starts formalizing basic institutional arrangements for REDD+;

• It will be key for countries to designate a person really engaged in the actual implementation and operationalization of REDD+, instead of choosing the negotiator to participate in the annual meetings;

• The structure and agenda of the annual meetings of the REDD+ focal points will be crucial to attain the objective of improving coordination… we will have to wait and see if the (already overburdened) Secretariat will have the resources to do this successfully;

• Role of the various sources/channels of support outside the UNFCCC once the GCF is operationalized; coordination efforts?

• Is there any role in coordinating the support for REDD+ implementation for the REDD+ Partnership?

Thoughts on the Joint SBI/ SBSTA process on Coordination of Support for REDD+ implementation

• The stall of negotiations under SBSTA in Doha had a huge impact in the outcome of Warsaw;

• At COP19, Parties needed to adopt 5 decisions to complete the methodological guidance for REDD, and they did it!

• Of the decisions adopted, the strongest ones are the decisions on RLs and on MRV, while the one on drivers and safeguards are short and limited;

• The technical demands on REDD+ countries are substantial - donors must continue to provide on-going financial and technical support for all phases;

• Pending Work: Non-Carbon Benefits & Non-Market based Approaches, submissions due last March will be discussed in June 2014.

Thoughts on the SBSTA rule book for REDD+

The Warsaw Framework for REDD+ has been adopted (composed by 7 adopted decisions), and by concluding (most of) the Cancun mandate, Parties have made REDD+ a reality.

The rules are clearly defined now, so REDD+ countries can move forward with the implementation through phases

The methodological guidance and technical decisions promote transparency and environmental integrity

Parties have shown that with hard work and political will, consensus can be achieved

REDD+ is now linked to other relevant discussions under the UNFCCC, recognizing its important contribution to the climate change discussions and actions, but we still need to include REDD+ under the ADP to guarantee that forests are part of the new climate deal.

In sum…

In the meantime… in the real world… countries have been going through their readiness processes with multilateral and bilateral support, and are facing challenges moving ahead

Barriers for the implementation of the WFREDD+

High transaction costs of

sustainable use within legal framework

Lack of coordination of

REDD+ support (in particular MRV)

Difficulties in transferring and

adopting new technologies and practices in rural

areas

Little experience

using participation

platforms and lack of

resources to promote them

Lack of technical capacities to meet

meth. requirements and demands (UNFCCC

roster)

Emerging tensions among national and subnational

governments

Lack of coordination

among sectors and institutions

Weak governance and law

enforcement

Inadequate flow of information &

lack of understanding of

what REDD+ means in the

ground

Limited research and knowledge on

cross-sectoral practices and investment to

attack drivers of DD

How to move ahead with REDD+?

All these barriers are not exclusive of REDD+, but in many cases pre-existing circumstances that have been affecting the forest sector for many years.

Seeing REDD+ not as an end but as the means to achieve broader conservation objectives (beyond carbon and in a rural sustainable development framework);

Understanding and communicating that REDD+ was never only about forests, but in fact it is more about working from and with other sectors;

There is an unprecedented momentum for tropical forests that has just been reconfirmed with the adoption of the WFREDD+, countries must capitalize in this opportunity to produce transformational changes in the way we develop;

Just the attempt to go through the readiness phase has produced a diversity of benefits (e.g. participation, transparency, strengthening of governance structures, raising the profile of forests in national agendas, etc.).

It is key to work to ensure that REDD+ enabling conditions become building blocks for ample objectives (e.g. PES created capacities that allowed countries that developed such mechanisms to be better prepared for REDD+).

Concluding thoughts

There is much work to do, but we are experiencing a great window of opportunity:

•With the adoption of the WFREDD+ there is more certainty (including the link to the GCF) for countries to move forward with their national processes.

•Other developments in the multilateral and bilateral world

•Market mechanisms? Non-market based mechanisms?

•Private sector involvement?

•REDD+ as part of the new climate deal

Thank you

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