Author(s): Rocío Hiraldo and Thomas Tanner Programme Area: Research-Related Activities Paper No.: 4 Code: OP

To advance legal knowledge and action for REDD+ development and climate change mitigation, IDLO, in collaboration with the UN-REDD Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), prepared country studies on Legal Preparedness for REDD+. The first three Country...

Law enforcement and anti-corruption activities are essential to successful and equitable efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. REDD+ depends on the idea that governments, whether national or subnational, can create legal frameworks and plans to reduce deforestation and degradation...

Shri Ranjan Chatterjee, Consultant, Planning Commission, said that forests are meant for every body and we need to keep balance between environment and forests. Shri Chatterjee said, “Forests are under pressure because of lack of understanding. Forests are not merely to preserve but work...

As policymakers prepare to discuss REDD+ at UN climate talks in Durban, they should heed the lessons learned from years of experience in participatory forest management across the developing world.

When: Oct 14 - 15, 2011 Where: Bhubaneswar, India Organized By: Regional Centre for Development Cooperation (RCDC)

Audits finally conducted of Norway’s foreign aid to Tanzania revealed irregularities and corruption, but critics claim Norwegian officials reacted much too mildly. The Foreign Ministry (Utenriksdepartementet, UD) appears to have been reluctant to take up difficult questions with...

Forest laws and policies in Rwanda, The Gambia and the US beat out 17 other nominees to win 2011 Future Policy Award

Governance is the keystone of sound natural resource management.

A few weeks ago, WWF was attacked by the international NGO Global Witness in a widely publicised report Pandering to the loggers. It is a case which raises some important dilemmas about the choice that NGOs (and others) have to make between carrot and stick.

THE United Nations says it will closely monitor all the funds it will give Zambia for climate change projects. And the UN has given Zambia US$4.5 million for the implementation of the UN-REDD plus project. In an interview, United Nations Development Plan (UNDP) environment finance advisor for...

Islamabad—Speakers on a seminar demanded revision of forest laws addressing landownership and judicious distribution of royalty in forest communities. Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here organized, “A Roundtable Conference on Sustainable Forest Management”. Prof...

Imagine if your government suddenly passed laws that sold off the street your family had lived on for generations to an international property developer. Your land was to be "converted" into flats in the name of national economic development; bulldozers would soon be moving in to...

AS Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy moves beyond its start-up phase, the government is leading efforts to advance work on the six priority investments for this year. The six investments will accelerate Guyana’s transition to a low carbon economy by deploying the US$70M earned...

The impacts of climate change will be felt all over the world, in developed and developing countries alike. At risk are billions of dollars but more importantly the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. Corruption cannot be allowed to jeopardise efforts to combat climate change.

AOUNDE, Cameroon (18 April, 2011)_The trade in illegally harvested timber provides a living for more than 45,000 people, a major source of income for corrupt officials and not a cent for the state. Follow this 5-part series as I explore Cameroon’s hidden harvest. I have used pseudonyms to...

The principle that indigenous peoples and local communities have a right to give or withhold their Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) to developments affecting their resources is not new. However, experience using FPIC in REDD+ implementation is still limited in the Asia-Pacific region....

All markets differ from region to region.  Soybean meal from Brazil, for example, has a higher protein content than does soybean meal from the United States, which makes it especially popular in China.  But the two products resemble each other enough that a Chinese buyer will grudgingly...

AGRICULTURE Minister Robert Persaud said, Wednesday, that the Government has led efforts to strengthen forest legality to ensure access to traditional and new markets and is pursuing avenues to build on what was previously achieved. He was speaking to stakeholders at a European Union (EU) Forest...

The European Union is closing its doors to illegal timber exports. But unless we tackle unsustainable logging to satisfy domestic timber markets, their actions will little benefit forests, or the millions of poor people that live within them. Making timber sustainable requires the use of both...

NEW YORK (24 January 2010)—A new study issued today by some of the world's top experts on forest governance finds fault with a spate of international accords, and helps explain their failure to stop rampant destruction of the world's most vulnerable forests. The report suggests that...

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) mechanisms are one of the best short term alternatives for significantly reducing green house gas emissions, thus contributing to minimize the impacts of global climate changes.

REDD has the potential for creating serious inter-community conflicts that could ignite explosive violence among tribes that have historically been antagonistic. Many tribal communities in heavily populated tropical countries have disputes with neighboring communities over control over...

October 5, 2010. FIELD has prepared a new guide on REDD-plus - its purpose is to assist developing country negotiators and others who are working on REDD-plus. FIELD provides this information on a neutral non partisan basis. The guide is available in English, French and Spanish. (English) Guide...

Daniel Slunge, Policy Analyst at the Environmental Economics Unit, University of Gothenburg, was invited speaker at the second Conference on Environmental Governance and Democracy: Strengthening Institutions to Address Climate Change and Advance a Green Economy, organized by the United Nations...

The World Bank, PROFOR and FAO are organizing an international symposium on indicators to assess and monitor the quality of forest governance. The symposium will take stock of progress to date in designing indicators and applying them in the field, including the use of indicators for specific...

Oaxaca, Mexico (3 September 2010)—With governments across Latin America preparing to implement a new financial mechanism aimed at mitigating climate change by curbing carbon emissions from the destruction of tropical forests, experts gathering here today warned against a "one-size-...

The UN-REDD Programme has been active over the past few months, in convening and engaging with partners from around in the world to advance ideas and common understandings of governance issues related to REDD+.

Can forest-rich countries learn from the mistakes of extractive projects and avoid unleashing their own resource curse? For poor developing countries, exploiting natural wealth such as minerals and metals should prove a blessing, offering the potential to generate huge revenues and help lift...

Aceh is a forest landscape where the interests of local people, extractive industries and globally important biodiversity are in conflict. Two prevailing factors have ensured large tracts of forest in Ulu Masen have remained relatively undisturbed: the three decade long separatist conflict that...

The United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD Programme) is a collaboration between FAO, UNDP and UNEP. A multi-donor trust fund was established in July 2008 that allows donors to pool resources and...

In order for REDD+ to be successful in halting deforestation in developing countries, carbon finance incentives will need to be delivered through smaller scale channels as well as big national bureacracies, The Nature Conservancy argues. To this end, the Nature Conservancy has issued a report,...

Social and economic development has historically been associated with spatial expansion of connection networks. A quick look at any detailed topographic map reveals that more developed countries have denser road and railroad network than less developed ones and that even within a country we are...

A forthcoming editorial in the journal Global Environmental Change discusses three broad principles for protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and members of local communities under REDD-plus actions.

A new direction for climate policy Rapid advance in addressing climate change is now possible for the first time in 15 years because global climate policy crashed in 2009, according to 'The Hartwell Paper', a new international report co-ordinated at LSE.

Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues; Ninth Session; 12th & 13th Meetings (AM & PM): The “painful” history of State control over forests could be traced by following the heavily deforested footprints that colonizers had left on indigenous lands and territories, the Permanent...

A Tool for Prioritizing Sub-National REDD Opportunities and Constraints Experiences in Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda.

March 2010: The International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have published a policy brief summarizing the main findings of five workshops that aimed to promote a multi-sectoral dialogue among countries on improving forest law...

Governance is the act or manner of governing. 'Good' governance is a form of political decision making that emphasises legality (rules to resolve conflicts), legitimacy (acceptance and trust by the public that create accountability)