Safeguards and REDD+: potential of voluntary standards

THINKING beyond the canopy

Safeguards and REDD+: potential of voluntary standards

Robert NasiCBD COP 10, Biodiversity Pavilion, REDD+ hour

Nagoya, Oct. 21, 2010

THINKING beyond the canopy

Forests: more than timber

…or carbon

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REDD+ and biodiversity

Source: Venter et al., 2009

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Barriers to sustainability� Governance

• Lack of serious intent by the major stakeholders (governments, industry, communities);

• High opportunity costs of maintaining forests as forests;• Lack of tenure security or unclear tenure and resource rights.

� Economy• Excessive costs and lack of clear financial benefits from

improved management vs. Business as usual;• Inappropriate wage systems for forest workers;• Inefficiency and waste in the forest and along the market chain.

� Knowledge and technical guidance• Inadequate information or knowledge about improved

management;• Improved management regulations appear too complicated or

unrealistic;• Lack of trained staff to implement improved management.

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Deforestation and forest degradation

THINKING beyond the canopySource: Harvey et al. 2009

REDD+ features and potential impacts on biodiversity conservation

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Safeguards and standards?

� Safeguards on REDD+ activities can become a major disincentive against their implementation

� Voluntary forest and carbon certification schemes can be seen an alternative to a prescribed safeguards policy,• Voluntary nature • Achieve overall public acceptance by minimizing social,

environmental and biodiversity risks• Must not pose too high transaction costs on their

application.

� This trade-offs between achieving legitimacy and economic efficiency of standards is a major difficulty of standard setting and has led to specialized standards by project type, scope and modality.

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Sustainable Forest Management Standards

REDD+ Project/Program Design Standards

GHG Accounting Standards

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)

CCBA REDD+ Social & Environmental (S&E) Standards

Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standards

CarbonFix Standard (CFS)

Global Conservation Standard (GCS)

Plan Vivo Standards

SOCIALCARBON Standard

ISO 14064:2006 Parts 2 and 3

Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS)

From Merger, Dutschke and Verchot 2010

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Standard Certification typeVerification

periodicityEligible third-party auditors

CCB StandardsNet positive climate, social and

environmental project performanceEvery five years

- CDM DOEs scope 14

- FSC certification bodies

FSCSustainable forest management and

chain of custody

Every five years +

annual surveillance

audits

- FSC Certification bodies accredited by

Accredited Services International (ASI)

PEFCSustainable forest management and

chain of custody

Every three years +

annual surveillance

audits

- Members of the International

Accreditation Forum compliant with ISO

CarbonFixNet positive GHG benefits certification,

social and environmental project

performance

Two years after

project start; every

five years thereafter

- DOEs for A/R CDM

- FSC certification bodies (accredited for

sustainable forest management)

GCSConservation benefits and net positive

social and environmental performance

of conserved areas

Annually - Under development

Plan VivoNet positive GHG benefits certification,

social and environmental project

performance

Annual revision by

Plan Vivo and third-

party verification at

least every five years

- CDM DOEs scope 14

- FSC certification bodies

- ISO 14064 accredited bodies

- Accredited certification bodies by the

California Climate Action Reserve

SOCIALCARBONNet positive socioeconomic

performanceFlexible - CDM DOEs

VCS ( ISO 14064) Net positive GHG benefitsAt least every five

years

- DOEs sectoral scope 14

- Accredited Independent JI Entities

- Approved Certification Bodies of the

Climate Action Reserve (accredited

under ISO 14065:2007)

- VCS Temporary Accreditation Program

bodies

From Merger, Dutschke and Verchot 2010

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Assessment of standards

� 4 substantive criteria

• Poverty alleviation• Sustainable forest

management

• Biodiversity conservation

• GHG emission reductions

� 2 procedural criteria

• Certification• Monitoring and evaluation

From Merger, Dutschke and Verchot 2010

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Sustainable forest management

FSC PEFC

From Merger, Dutschke and Verchot 2010

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Social-economical

CCB REDD+ S&E CCB

SOCIALCARBON

From Merger, Dutschke and

Verchot 2010

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Net GHG benefits

CarbonFix VCS and ISO 14064

From Merger, Dutschke and Verchot 2010

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“Different”

Plan Vivo GCS

From Merger, Dutschke and Verchot 2010

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Uptake?

� FSC : 135 M ha� PEFC : 226 M ha

� CCB : 26 CCBA projects� CCB REDD+ S&E : too early (June 2010)

� CarbonFix : 1 project

� VCS : 1 REDD met approved� ISO 14064 : no certificates by design

� Plan Vivo : 4 projects� GCS : too early (still in dev.)

� SOCIALCARBON : too early

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Conclusion

� Standards could be a efficient way to address safeguards

� Many existing standards for GHG are still “too young”� SFM type standards do no consider GHG

� None of the considered standards is comprehensive

� Either the most comprehensive are completed for the missing parts (but then what about the specificities?)

� Or project proponents will need to search certification by more than one standard

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