Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD): an options assessment report

This report assesses several important considerations for a future reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) mechanism. The report also intends to inform policy makers about some of the critical choices they will need to make regarding the inclusion of REDD within Copenhagen agreement. The paper deems that this would create the enabling conditions for effective implementation in REDD countries.<br /><br />The paper indicates that capturing the mitigation potential of REDD requires a flexible, phased approach to implementation in order to accommodate: <br /> the diverse capabilities of REDD countries an expanded scope of REDD the near-term constraints of the current global financial crisis.The paper finds that a sustainable outcome for REDD requires a global partnership, with REDD country leadership needed for successful implementation. Consequently, the paper underlines that International REDD funding will have to be integrated into the overall financing architecture developed as part of Copenhagen agreement. Moreover, systematically talking, the paper suggests:<br /> procedures for setting reference levels that are based on agreed criteria across countries adherence to a principle of global additionality employing the Kyoto Protocol definition of forest and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) framework for green house gas (GHG) inventories employing Good Practice Guidance (GPG) for defining all eligible REDD activities flexibility and consistency with respect to the inclusion of diverse forest carbon pools in monitoring, reporting, and verification future reviewing of IPCC GPG methodologies to ensure applicability in response to the future REDD policy framework adoption of the same verification process as used for reviewing annual GHG inventories of countries with an emission-reduction commitment promotion of the participation of local communities in an international REDD mechanism.<br /><br />