December 2018- February 2019
IN THIS ISSUE:
 
 
We are excited to share this newsletter edition with you, which coincides with the kick-off of the UNFCCC COP24 in Katowice, Poland. 

This year's climate negotiations are particularly critical, as Parties to the Paris Agreement set December 2018 as the deadline for developing and adopting the implementing guidelines to operationalize the 2015 Paris Agreement. T he clock is ticking. We need to collectively agree on a decisive and clear path forward .
 
One of those evident pathways is through forests. Forests can deliver 30 per cent of the climate solution and are fundamental to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 
 
The 10-year anniversary of the UN-REDD Programme this year is a key milestone to look ahead and to take stock of a decade of coordinated actions on REDD+.
 
Over the past decade, we have worked with partner countries to successfully achieve substantial climate, forest and development goals. To name just a few successes: more than 30 countries have advanced their national REDD+ strategies or action plans, 40 countries were supported in developing national forest monitoring systems, and 15 countries have developed country approaches to meeting the UNFCCC social and environmental safeguards requirements. Our most recent accomplishment has been Thailand joining as our 65th partner country!
  
We hope you enjoy this  issue highlighting the importance of forests for both people and the planet. 
 
Sign up today to receive The REDD+ Resource to your inbox!
REDD+ IN THE NEWS
New forest monitoring system to help fight climate change
22 November 2018 | The Nation
Workshop on review of REDD+ engagement
20 November 2018 | Loop News PNG
Sabah approves amendments on Forestry Enactment 1968
15 November 2018 | New Straits Times
  Link >  
PUBLICATIONS
FAO launches a set of thematic readings on REDD+ mitigation actions
Strengthening National Forest Monitoring Systems for REDD+
Fortalecimiento de los sistemas nacionales de monitoreo de los bosques para REDD+
FOREST NEWS
Climate-heating greenhouse gases at record levels, says UN
Rapid and unprecedented action required to stay within 1.5ºC says UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
SOFO 2018 Provides Strengthened Evidence on Role of Forests in Achieving SDGs  
Scientists Highlight Forests' Critical Role in Climate Mitigation
 
JOBS/OPPORTUNITIES 
Forestry Officer (REDD+ team)
FAO Closing date: 14 December 2018
Forestry Officer (REDD+)
IUFRO- Closing date: 14 December 2018
Professor and Head, Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries
IUFRO- Closing date: 1 January 2019
WATCH
Saving Forests,Improving lives in Vitenam
"Made in Forests - a short story about sustainable fashion with Michelle Yeoh
The Sustainable Development Goals need forests
Pilares de conservación. Concesiones forestales de Petén, Guatemala

LEARN
CONNECT
ABOUT
UN-REDD Programme at COP24
Forests First: From 
10 years REDD+ to the 
full scope of nature-based 
climate solutions
 
Side Event SDG 15

Where: Room Wisla 
When: December 12, 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM CET

The UN-REDD Programme's side event will showcase forests as the leading front in nature-based climate solutions, building on 10 years of wide-ranging work around REDD+. Informed by the expertise of practitioners, the event will demonstrate how innovative South-South and public-private partnerships, novel financial instruments and new technological advances are fundamental for scaling up forest-based climate action.

STORIES
REDD+ nesting: reducing emissions, forest monitoring and benefit sharing at multiple scales

Many countries around the world are working to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Two recent regional South-South Exchanges of the UN-REDD Programme addressed important issues for REDD+ countries in Asia-Pacific and Africa. The issue of 'nesting' has attracted much attention from country decision-makers at those events because it looks at how actions at smaller scales can best be catalysed to contribute to larger-scale jurisdictional performance, whether at national or subnational scales.

Beyond REDD+: New applications of developed NFMS and Remote Sensing tools

Through many years of experience and country examples, we have learned that data on forest ecosystems is crucial for forest-related decision-making at the local and national level.  National Forest Monitoring Systems (NFMS)  are important for countries to be able to monitor and report on national goals and international targets, such as carbon and biomass in forests.

From community consultation to active collaboration in REDD+ Local Communities and IPs at the forefront of REDD+ Implementation
 
REDD+ holds a unique position in this matter, as it has the potential to attract international and national attention while increasing support for strengthening communities' rights and stewardship of forests and land.

Ghana and Ecuador partner to advance REDD+ implementation

Ecuador and Ghana participated in a South-South Knowledge Exchange that took place from Sept. 24- 28, 2018 to share experiences and build capacity in terms of understanding REDD+ implementation, leveraging investment, and greening domestic investments for REDD+. 

Lessons learned in the process of engaging and structuring civil society participation in the national REDD+ process in DRC

Three years after the restructuring of the Reformed Climate Working Group on REDD+ (or GTCRR, by its French acronym), which serves as the national platform for civil society in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), UNDP and the Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN) have jointly published a report that highlights key lessons and proposes recommendations on how civil society can effectively participate and engage in the REDD+ process. 

Banking on forests in Myanmar
 
recent info brief published by UN Environment examines the economic and financial benefits of a deforestation-free approach to lending and investment in Myanmar. It provides recommendations for financial institutions on how to reduce their exposure to the forest-related risks arising from their clients/investees' activities.

The importance of Mongolia's boreal forests
 
Every year as the sun warms and the days lengthen, 28-year-old Baganatsooj moves his herds to their summer pastures outside the town of Tunkhel in Mongolia's far northern Selenge province-a nomadic lifestyle his ancestors have practiced for thousands of years.
 
What Mongolia learned from building its forest reference level

Mongolia is unlike any other UN-REDD partner country. It is the only boreal forest nation to have joined the UN-REDD Programme, and has permafrost dating from the last Ice Age, litter accumulated over decades, and temperature ranges spanning up to 100ºC.

Viet Nam: Bridging the past and the future of emission reductions

In the second half of the 20th century, Viet Nam saw its forest cover shrink from 43 to 28 percent. Large swaths of forest were lost to defoliage or damaged by the expansion of agriculture, fires and illegal logging. Then came a series of breakthroughs.
Read more.

Bangladesh's forest reference level: a tale of five forests

Ganges dolphins, saltwater crocodiles and Bengal tigers are some of the species found in the Sundarbans, the largest continuous mangrove forest in the world. 
Read more.

Upland peats: Time for Action to Improve the Management of the World's Mountain Peats, Commencing on the Isle of Papua

The move towards a joint global effort to conserve the world's upland peats in recent years has seen increased attention on coastal tropical peats, particularly after repeated massive fire outbreaks that occurred since 1981, like the 1997/98 and 2015 catastrophic fires in Indonesia.
Read more.

No hacemos sostenibilidad por razones de mercado, es un instinto maternal

Marisa Candiani supo qué comentaban a sus espaldas los baqueanos con los que trabajaba en su rancho Los Fresnos (Jalisco, México). "La señora no sólo da órdenes sino que se preocupa de otras cosas, le interesa el bosque y el bienestar animal", comentaban.
Lee Mas.


UN-REDD PROGRAMME NEWS

The 10-year anniversary of the UN-REDD Programme, which fell on September 2018, has provided the opportunity to not only evaluate the UN-REDD Programme's successes, but to plan future work. To do so, the UN-REDD Programme Executive Board met for the second time on October 18-19, 2018, in Rome, Italy. The Executive Board is composed of representatives of donors, UN-REDD Programme countries, Indigenous Peoples, civil society organisations, and the participating UN agencies - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Environment.


To mark the 10-year anniversary of the UN-REDD Programme, a new multimedia platform has been launched. Featuring six curated stories with photos and videos, the platform demonstrates the Programme's impact on the ground spanning from Asia to Africa and Latin America. These testimonies demonstrate how the Programme has helped advance the protection of forests for the people and the planet.


A new update of the Globallometree platform reports a thousand new allometric models to support countries both in emission factors and volume assessments. Tree biomass, volume and carbon stocks can be estimated using various methods, however, the use of allometric models is considered the most common one. Although some general pan-continental or pan-tropical equations exist, forestry departments across the world often prefer to use local allometric models that are more tailored to their conditions.


Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in the context of REDD+ continues to be a challenging concept. There is no single internationally agreed definition. Neither is there a single way to implement FPIC. It varies across regions, countries, contexts, peoples and communities. This revitalized repository aims to facilitate and encourage knowledge and experience exchange among practitioners as well as those interested to embark on FPIC within the Asia-Pacific region.


Con la certeza de que otra manera de producir carne es posible e incluso inevitable, productores, representantes de la industria frigorífica, organismos locales e internacionales, participaron en Asunción del Paraguay del Intercambio Sur-Sur Ganadería sostenible y bosques (6/7 de noviembre).


COUNTRY REDD+ ADVANCES 
In November 2018, FAO launched its new Partnership with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plants Conservation (DNP) of the Royal Thai Government.  Under this Partnership, FAO will assist Thailand in developing the Forest Reference Level (FRL), so the country can set a benchmark against which it can measure the emissions reduced from implementing a national REDD+ program. In addition, Thailand's National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS) will be improved and updated as a practical tool for national forest policy and planning.

Côte d'Ivoire submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2015, which later became their first NDC when the government ratified the Paris Agreement in October 2016.

Peatlands are lands with a naturally accumulated plant layer on their surface, stored by the high water level. Peatland ecosystems store great amounts of carbon and have therefore become a centre of attention for climate change mitigation. Although not all peat locations are known and mapped, peatlands are estimated to contain 30 per cent of the world's soil carbon though they only cover 3 per cent of the Earth's land area. 
 
Significant Progress in Myanmar's REDD+ Readiness Phase  
 


Myanmar has the highest proportion of forest cover in mainland Southeast Asia. According to Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015 published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 44.2% of the country's territory is covered with forests. A considerable part of these forests is still relatively intact, hosting exceptional biodiversity, including fishing cats, sun bears, dholes, binturongs, pangolins, and more than 1,000 bird species. Moreover, an estimated 70% of the country's population is living in rural areas and heavily dependent on forests for their basic needs.

 
This resource is made possible through the generous support of the European Commission and the governments of Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, Japan, Spain and Switzerland.

Content provided by UN-REDD Programme staff, partner countries and guests.

All images used courtesy of license holder or through Creative Commons license.