SNV launches new programme: The REDD+ Energy and Agriculture Programme
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Agriculture and energy use are major drivers of deforestation and forest degradation. In order to tackle these drivers requires the introduction of improved agricultural practices and appropriate renewable energy technologies. SNV will begin the REDD+ Energy and Agriculture Programme (REAP) in January 2013 toadvance understanding on the interface between agriculture and energy use across different forest landscapes and to introduce contextualised solutions in order to bring about reduced emissions, forest protection and improved livelihoods.
REDD+ is facing many challenges, not least the slow and uncertain rate of progress in reducing actual greenhouse gas emissions from the forestry sector. For many of us with experience working in this sector, these difficulties are not unexpected. Critical issues pertinent to forestry and land use remain, including the need for further technical and institutional capacity building at both the national and local levels, development of effective financing and benefit sharing arrangements, addressing tenure rights and governance issues, and the need for more integrated land-use planning.
On an optimistic note, REDD+ has helped shift the debate forward, bringing greater attention to the forestry sector’s role in global climate change and helping to spur debate in some countries on the role of local communities in forest management. It has also fostered real advances in transparency of forest data and the means to measure forest cover changes and estimate emissions. It is important that the international community continues to build on these developments and to provide the necessary investment in REDD+ over the long term. SNV identified a number of critical areas in which we believe further thinking is needed in order to advance application of REDD+, namely:
(i) how to better link the sectors driving deforestation and forest degradation through low-emission development planning;
(ii) near-term options for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) for REDD+; and
(iii) REDD+ financing.
SNV hired Matthew Ogonowski, an independent consultant, who is now employed at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide further insights on each of these 3 topics. The opinions and views expressed in this paper are those of the author and not necessarily those of USAID and SNV.
The papers can be downloaded here:
REDD+ and Other Sectors: Climate Change Mitigation Through Integration and Low-Emission Development
Financing REDD+: Institutions, Lessons and Target areas for the Next Decade
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