REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in developing countries)

By Rhett A. Butler



This article presents the state of REDD+ as of 2012. There are regular updates on REDD+ in the news feed below.

REDD — reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries — is a proposed climate change mitigation mechanism that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by paying developing countries to stop cutting down their forests. Tropical deforestation is the source of 12-17 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, a share larger than all the world's cars, trucks, ships, planes, and trains combined.

A properly designed REDD mechanism is widely seen as a cost-effective approach to simultaneously conserve forests, slow climate change, protect biodiversity, foster sustainable development, and maintain important ecological services provided by healthy forest ecosystems. The concept of REDD has won support from a wide range of interests, including conservationists, big business, scientists, governments, development agencies, and some environmental and indigenous rights groups. However concerns still remain over how REDD will be implemented and whether benefits will be fairly shared between stakeholders.


Smallholder deforestation in Borneo

History of REDD

The concept of REDD is not a new idea. Compensating tropical forest conservation was proposed by environmental scientists in the 1980s and 1990s but it wasn't until the later half of the 1990s that the idea gained much currency at the international level, when it was discussed at various United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) events, including COP3 in Kyoto in 1997. Nevertheless technical concerns and opposition from some environmental groups (led by WWF) resulted in forest conservation being excluded from the Kyoto Protocol by 2001.

The concept of 'avoided deforestation' re-emerged on the international stage in 2005 with the formation of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations (CfRN), a group of tropical countries lobbying for the inclusion of forest conservation as a way to mitigate to climate change. Led by Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica, the Coalition for Rainforest Nations presented a draft proposal "Reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries: approaches to stimulate action" at COP11 in Montreal in 2005. Two years of negotiations and technical advancements culminated in the Bali Action Plan of December 2007, which called for "policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries [REDD], and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stock in developing countries." Support for REDD has deepened and broadened since Bali: REDD was one of the only areas of progress during climate talks in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Since its inception as "avoided deforestation", the forest protection mechanism has expanded to encompass forest degradation (the second "D" in REDD). It later evolved to include sustainable forest management (i.e. reducing impact logging) and reforestation, becoming known as REDD-plus ("REDD+").


Soy and Chaco forest

Key REDD issues

While there is now substantial support for REDD, many issues remain unsettled, including financing to support the mechanism and provide sufficient economic incentives to stop deforestation; criteria for establishing credible deforestation baselines; technical aspects of monitoring and verifying change in forest cover; concerns over poor governance and illegal logging; international leakage, whereby forest conservation in one country drives deforestation in another; scale of implementation, including the debate over "national" versus "sub-national" projects; equity, including land tenure, ownership, and participation of forest-dependent communities; questions on how to address drivers of deforestation including consumption in rich countries; sustainable forest management (i.e. reduced impact logging) versus protection of primary forests as intact ecosystems; protection of biodiversity and environmental services in non-carbon-rich ecosystems; and controversies over carbon offsets and including forest carbon in market-based trading schemes.



REDD timing

Although an agreement on REDD has still not been signed, projects are already underway in a number of countries and industrialized countries have committed billions of dollars to REDD start-up initiatives via the UN-REDD Programme, the World Bank's Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, and other entities. Once an agreement is finalized, 2013 is the earliest REDD would formally commence, following the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol.

REDD Funding

The following overview is from the UN's Reporting REDD.

    Once a system is in place, market-based funding mechanisms such as carbon trading, and private sector involvement, could be introduced. Some proposals back a combination of government and private sector funding.

    Carbon trading is based on the idea that companies and governments may meet targets for reducing their carbon emissions by paying for carbon reductions elsewhere in the global economy instead. REDD could allow credits to be issued which would quantify the amount of carbon saved through 'avoided deforestation' — not cutting trees down. The credits could then be traded on carbon markets.

    An advantage of carbon trading is that it could raise money quickly. A disadvantage is that flooding existing carbon markets with REDD credits could further dilute the already low value of carbon. A low carbon price means there is less incentive for companies to switch to technologies that reduce carbon emissions.

    Developing countries would voluntarily opt in to the REDD mechanism, so for it to work the scheme would have to ensure that there is more money in protecting forests than in logging or agriculture. Because those responsible for commercially driven deforestation often control the forest area in which they operate, they need to be involved in REDD schemes. Typically, this involves paying them to manage the forest sustainably, or at least not to engage in large-scale logging or land conversion. REDD will have to compensate for income lost as a result of stopping forest clearance — known as the 'opportunity cost.' While REDD may be able to match this amount for poor farmers, matching lost income from lucrative agricultural production such as soya and oil palm cultivation or from valuable timber will be very costly. If payments are disrupted, or the amount falls short of the value of the timber in the forest or what could be grown on cleared land, a return to cutting down trees could quickly occur. To avert this problem, REDD would need to ensure a steady flow of funds over long periods. Negotiators concerned that fluctuations in the carbon market would be too erratic advocate a separate REDD fund based on donations from industrialized countries.
Drained, cleared, and burned peat forest in Indonesia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

REDD Resources

Official documents

Key REDD Programs


Some notable REDD Publications

REDD Glossary

The following overview is from the UN's Reporting REDD.

Additionality
Extra amount of carbon saved or stored because of projects carried out through climate change agreements.

Baseline or Reference level (RL)
Historical reference point (date or year) against which the rate of greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation or forest degradation can be compared.

Carbon rights
The right to use carbon credits or offsets to satisfy limits on greenhouse gas emissions or to reduce penalties for exceeding the limit imposed.

Carbon sink
Ecosystem that accumulates and stores carbon.

Carbon sequestration
Removal of carbon from the atmosphere and storage in carbon sinks through natural or human-induced methods.

Carbon trading
The process of buying and selling carbon credits. Large companies or organizations are assigned targets for the amount of carbon they are allowed to emit. A company that exceeds its target will need to buy carbon credits to offset the extra carbon it has emitted. A company that uses less than its quota can sell surplus credits.

Deforestation
The conversion of forest land to non-forested land through human activity.

Degradation
Human-induced long-term loss of forest, characterized by the reduction of tree crown cover, but not yet considered as complete deforestation.

Indigenous peoples
Tribe or community native to a particular region and sharing a collective identity who retain some or all of their own social, cultural and political institutions.

Leakage or emissions displacement
When efforts to reduce emissions in one area lead to an increase in carbon emissions in another area.

Liability
Obligation on the implementing party to guarantee that the emissions reduction credited in the REDD scheme is permanent.

Mitigation
Actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere.

Offsetting
Payment to emissions reduction projects to compensate for greenhouse gas emissions.

Opportunity cost
The cost of compensating for financial gains from deforestation practices such as logging or agriculture.


The following definitions are from the International Institute for Environment and Development.

REDD
The acronym stands for ‘reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation’. This issue was first placed on the agenda of the 2005 international climate change negotiations. At that point the agenda item was called ‘reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries and approaches to stimulate action’. As a result, this is the name of the decision on REDD agreed at the 2007 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Bali, Indonesia (decision 2/CP.13). Decision 2/CP.13 acknowledges that forest degradation also leads to emissions and needs to be addressed when reducing emissions from deforestation. The ‘DD’ in REDD now stands for degradation and deforestation.

REDD +
Along with the separate decision on REDD (see above), REDD is included in the Bali Action Plan (decision 1/CP.13) as a component of enhanced action on mitigation (curbing emissions). Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed to consider policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to REDD in developing countries and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries. It is this last clause on the role of conservation and sustainable management that has added the ‘+’ to the REDD discussion.

REDD baseline
An expected, or business-as-usual, emission of carbon dioxide from deforestation and forest degradation in the absence of additional efforts to curb such emissions — used as a benchmark against which emissions reductions can be measured.

REDD conditions
To deliver real reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, REDD must satisfy the following conditions.

  • additionality - Proof that any reduction in emissions from a REDD project is genuinely additional to reductions that would occur if that project were not in place.
  • no leakage - Leakage is a reduction in carbon emissions in one area that results in increased emissions in another. A classic example is where curbing clearfelling in one region of forest drives farmers to clearfell in another.
  • permanence - The long-term viability of reduced emissions from a REDD project. This is heavily dependent on the forested area's vulnerability to deforestation and/or degradation.

     

    THE LATEST REDD+ NEWS FROM MONGABAY

    Communities band together to save besieged reserve in Bolivia (20 Nov 2024 23:30:00 +0000)
    - Bolivia’s Tucabaca Valley Municipal Wildlife Reserve has been beset by clearing and fires over the past several years.
    - Now, mining, infrastructure development and land trafficking are adding to the pressure faced by the reserve.
    - Residents of nearby communities have formed an association called Movement in Defense of the Tucabaca Valley.
    - In June, a delegation from the Movement visited the Tucabaca reserve to assess the damage.

    Relief in Sri Lanka as key threat to nonprotected forests is repealed (20 Nov 2024 11:41:59 +0000)
    - A 2020 government decree that transferred administrative control of nonprotected forests in Sri Lanka to local governments has been formally revoked by the country’s new government.
    - The move follows its overturning by the country’s Supreme Court, where environmental activists argued it could allow the release of these forests for development projects without proper environmental assessments.
    - Known as “other state forests” (OSFs) or “residual forests,” they harbor high levels of biodiversity and serve as crucial connectivity or buffer zones that help reduce human-wildlife conflict.
    - They could also play a key role in the government’s commitment to the 30×30 initiative of protecting 30% of land and sea area by 2030.

    Experts welcome Brazil’s revived reforestation plan as much-needed boost (20 Nov 2024 09:46:29 +0000)
    - By 2030, Brazil aims to restore 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of degraded land through the Planaveg initiative, revised and launched by the government at the recent COP16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia.
    - Experts have welcomed the move amid growing international commitments to protect biodiversity and stabilize the climate, but point to challenges such as securing resources and social mobilization.
    - As ambitious as the target is, it still falls short of the 20.7 million hectares (51.2 million acres) of native vegetation that have been illegally degraded just on private rural plots.

    Five-year rainforest tech competition culminates with four winners (20 Nov 2024 09:29:59 +0000)
    - Limelight Rainforest, a team of ecologists, robotics engineers and Indigenous scientists, has won first place in a $10 million rainforest tech competition.
    - At the finals in Brazil in July, the team deployed canopy rafts, drones and artificial intelligence models to identify and detect the highest amount of biodiversity from a forest plot within 24 hours.
    - Three other teams were also recognized for their work in developing tech solutions to monitor rainforests around the world.
    - The five-year XPRIZE Rainforest competition was launched in 2019 to identify solutions to automate rainforest monitoring.

    Scottish salmon farms seek growth despite mounting fish deaths and environmental concerns (20 Nov 2024 08:00:36 +0000)
    - Scotland is the world’s third-largest producer of farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), after Norway and Chile.
    - The industry is seeking to significantly increase production in Scotland, driven by growing export demand.
    - However, it faces ethical concerns over mounting fish mortality, as well as environmental concerns about pollution, the proliferation of sea lice affecting wild salmon, and opposition from several local communities.
    - Industry members acknowledge the challenge of growing salmon amid rising sea temperatures, but say Scottish salmon farms have made progress in managing sea lice and other health challenges.

    Indigenous guardians embark on a sacred pact to protect the lowland tapir in Colombia (20 Nov 2024 07:00:36 +0000)
    - An Indigenous-led citizen conservation project in the community of Musuiuiai in Putumayo, Colombia, aims to obtain data on the lowland tapir’s presence and understand the environmental factors affecting the species.
    - According to spiritual beliefs, a divination from an elder in the 1990s pushed the community to move to a high-priority region for tapir conservation. Beliefs in the mammal’s sacred status supports conservation efforts.
    - The lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) is listed as vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN Red List; in Colombia, it’s threatened by habitat loss and hunting.
    - Using a biocultural approach to conservation, Musuiuiai was named an Indigenous and Community Conserved Area (ICCA), whose members now hope to reduce tapir hunting in neighboring tribes through outreach and collaboration.

    Camera traps reveal little-known Sumatran tiger forests need better protection (20 Nov 2024 02:58:44 +0000)
    - A new camera-trapping study in Indonesia’s Aceh province has identified an ample but struggling population of Sumatran tigers, lending fresh urgency to calls from conservationists for greater protection efforts in the critically endangered subspecies’ northernmost stronghold forests.
    - The study focused on the Ulu Masen Ecosystem, an expanse of unprotected and little-studied forest connected to the better-known Leuser Ecosystem, the only place on Earth that houses rhinos, tigers, elephants and orangutans.
    - The big cat population and its prey likely contend with intense poaching pressure, the study concludes; their forest home is also under threat from development pressure, illegal logging, rampant mining and agricultural encroachment.
    - As a key part of the Leuser–Ulu Masen Tiger Conservation Landscape, experts say Ulu Masen merits more conservation focus to protect the tigers, their prey populations and their habitats.

    ‘Scratching the surface’ of Nepal butterfly research: Interview with Sanej Suwal (20 Nov 2024 02:48:02 +0000)
    - With 692 identified species, including more than two dozen endemic, Nepal is an important habitat for butterflies. However, research is in its infancy due to insufficient funding, limited public interest and a lack of cultural emphasis on butterfly conservation.
    - Sanej Suwal is one of a handful of researchers dedicated to butterfly research in Nepal, balancing species studies with public awareness initiatives. He organized Nepal’s first Big Butterfly Count, a citizen science initiative.
    - Butterflies in Nepal likely face threats from climate change, habitat loss and urbanization. Despite their importance, butterfly research struggles with minimal funding and institutional recognition, requiring more researchers and global support to expand knowledge and conservation efforts.

    The plastics crisis is now a global human health crisis, experts say (19 Nov 2024 18:15:32 +0000)
    - Plastics can contain thousands of different chemicals, many of them linked to cancer and reproductive harm, and many never tested for safety.
    - Multiple studies are now finding these chemicals, along with microplastics, throughout the human body, raising alarm among scientists about widespread health effects, including reduced fertility and increased obesity.
    - Research points to a correlation between the presence of microplastics and endocrine disrupting plasticizers in the human body and a variety of serious maladies, but tracing a direct causal line is very difficult given the complexity and number of plastics and the industry’s lack of transparency regarding its products.
    - Many scientists and nations are calling for a binding plastics treaty to limit global plastic production. But this week the U.S. took a weaker position; it now supports a policy in which nations set their own voluntary targets for reducing production. Negotiations to determine the final treaty language begin at a UN summit in Busan, Korea, running Nov. 25 – Dec. 1.

    Hopes and fears for the Amazon: Interview with botanist Hans ter Steege (19 Nov 2024 17:44:26 +0000)
    - Dutch researcher and tree expert Hans ter Steege is the founder of the Amazon Tree Diversity Network, which brings together hundreds of scientists studying the rainforest to map and understand the region’s biodiversity.
    - Ter Steege says the rainforest is in danger of collapse: If the deforestation in Brazil’s Pará state continues at the rate of the year 2000, he warns, “then our models show there will be hardly anything left by 2050.”
    - Large trees are dying faster in the Amazon, he said, as they face a greater evaporation demand, which they can no longer meet with the water they extract from the soil, as there are more droughts and less rainfall.
    - If the forest collapses, Brazil’s aerial water supply system — and its agriculture — will collapse, Ter Steege says.

    Biodiversity credit approaches multiply as concerns cloud confidence (19 Nov 2024 11:59:18 +0000)
    - In recent years, biodiversity credit projects and the methods to calculate their value have proliferated, seen by some as a way to finance the $700 billion gap in conservation funding identified in the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework.
    - Credits involve payment for measurable outcomes beneficial to nature, ranging from increases in species diversity at a site to securing land rights for Indigenous communities.
    - Critics of biodiversity credits have voiced concerns about comparing outcomes across ecosystems, especially if buyers will use the credits for offsetting. They also say focusing on biodiversity credits is a distraction.
    - Proponents argue for bolstering biodiversity credit integrity and confidence in the markets to boost demand. Projections by the World Economic Forum suggest the market could reach $7 billion by 2030, though less than $2 million in credits have been sold so far.

    ‘Historic’ decision for the Batwa & DRC gorilla park faces hurdles — and hope (19 Nov 2024 09:00:37 +0000)
    - The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights determined that the eviction of thousands of Batwa from Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the 1970s was a human rights violation. However, months later, questions remain about whether and how the government will implement the commission’s 19 recommendations to address the situation.
    - The return of Batwa to their ancestral lands in the park, paying them compensation and a public apology for all the Batwa suffered are among the key recommendations the Batwa and sources highlighted. Implementation would be challenging, but necessary from a human rights standpoint, they said, while breaking down the process.
    - Researchers say there lacks evidence that modern-day Batwa are custodians of the forest and environmentalists highlight the need to build community-centered conservation projects that help Batwa live sustainably on their land in the park or find a balance that works for both the Batwa and park officials.
    - The DRC and park officials have not yet commented on the possibility of implementation, but conservation authorities and the park’s partners and donors say they are taking steps to reconcile Indigenous rights and the protection of biodiversity.

    Dam displaces farmers as drought parches Indonesia’s Flores Island (19 Nov 2024 06:09:58 +0000)
    - In 2015, Indonesia announced the construction of seven dams to provide water in East Nusa Tenggara province, an eastern region of the archipelago where access to freshwater is scarce during the annual dry season.
    - One of the national priority dams, the Lambo Dam on Flores Island, has yet to be finished because of a land dispute with Indigenous communities in Nagekeo district.
    - Research shows that much of Indonesia, particularly in the east, face increasing water stress due to climate change, as well as drought spikes brought on by the positive Indian Ocean dipole and El Niño patterns.

    A Ramsar site in Bangladesh fast loses its fish diversity amid government inaction (19 Nov 2024 03:00:56 +0000)
    - Tanguar Haor, Bangladesh’s second largest Ramsar site and one of the country’s most important habitats of breeding fish, has been losing its fish diversity.
    - A recent study found that the number of available fish species is now below 100 while, just two decades ago, the figure was recorded to be 141.
    - Experts blame anthropogenic factors, including overfishing and habitat destruction, as the causes of declining diversity.
    - However, authorities are ignoring the rising urgency for conservation and are instead celebrating the “increased fish production in the wetland.”

    Organizations tackle droughts, floods in Brazil by planting forests (18 Nov 2024 23:06:42 +0000)
    - Many areas of Brazil have been hit with severe droughts and floods in recent years; scientists say climate change is increasing the incidence of extreme weather events.
    - Forests protect against erosion and pollution and help store water in soil and aquifers, buoying water security.
    - Organizations across the country are leading efforts to reforest cleared areas — particularly along rivers and other water sources —to mitigate the damaging effects of droughts, floods and other effects of climate change, as well as safeguard and improve habitat for wildlife.
    - Experts and stakeholders say broader support is needed at the federal level, while a representative of Brazil’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change says the government is rolling out conservation plans of its own.

    Easy to catch, yet little known: Meet the Chinese mountain cat (18 Nov 2024 17:45:39 +0000)
    - The Chinese mountain cat (Felis bieti) is a little-known felid found only on the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, in northwestern China.
    - The species was first photographed in the wild in 2007, and until recently, very little has been known about its distribution and basic ecology.
    - Researchers collected vital data on an active Chinese mountain cat den in 2018, while a recent study in Menyuan county, Qinghai province, managed to GPS-collar Chinese mountain cats for the first time.
    - Recent genetic research highlights the growing threat posed by hybridization with domestic cats.

    How ‘waste colonialism’ underpins Asia’s plastic problem (commentary) (18 Nov 2024 17:31:55 +0000)
    - Most plastic is a product of oil and gas, so addressing Asia’s plastic pollution problem is not just a question of waste management, but of climate change, too.
    - The largest plastic manufacturers are located in the US, EU, UK, and Japan, former colonial powers which are also now the main exporters of their societies’ waste to the Global South, in a cycle called ‘waste colonialism,’ which is likely to be debated again this month.
    - “With the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) on the Global Plastic Treaty beginning in late November, world leaders have a make or break moment to address the worsening impacts of plastic pollution,” a new op-ed argues.
    - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

    A father and son duo fight invasive lionfish on a Honduran reef (18 Nov 2024 16:52:59 +0000)
    - Live coral covers 68% of Tela Bay, on the northern coast of Honduras, creating a complex ecosystem that’s part of the wider Mesoamerican Reef system.
    - Among stressors including overfishing and coral bleaching due to climate change, is the invasive lionfish — a spectacular-looking, venomous, striped fish native to the Indo-Pacific that, with no natural predators here, is wreaking havoc on marine ecosystems throughout the Caribbean.
    - To protect Tela Bay’s embattled coral reef, a local father and son are mounting a single-minded lionfish hunting effort to limit the fishes’ spread, hunting the fish themselves and organizing hunting competitions.

    DRC carbon credit projects surge amid lack of regulation (18 Nov 2024 13:04:45 +0000)
    - Researchers say carbon credit projects involving private companies, NGOs and logging companies have proliferated in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
    - They’ve documented projects covering more than a quarter of the DRC’s nearly 200 million hectares (494 million acres) of forest.
    - Preliminary findings suggest that the DRC lacks the governmental guardrails to ensure these projects are helping to avoid deforestation and that they are not harming communities.
    - In late 2021, an India-based consultancy signed carbon credit project agreements with 25 communities in the DRC but provided little information about the projects. The company is reportedly no longer operating in the country.

    Lithium mining brings sickness to Jequitinhonha Valley communities (18 Nov 2024 10:17:33 +0000)
    - With annual output of 270,000 tons per year, Sigma Lithium has been increasing its lithium mining in the Jequitinhonha Valley; its pile of waste rock already covers 560,000 square meters (6 million square feet) of land and is encroaching on homes in the neighboring community.
    - Dust produced by the mining operation has been causing respiratory problems in the local community, which is also suffering from psychiatric disturbances, silted-up rivers and cracks in their homes caused by detonations.
    - Other traditional communities in Jequitinhonha Valley, including Quilombolas and Indigenous communities, are also being affected by the lithium mine; land ownership conflicts are occurring in some municipalities.




    Participants in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility as of 2012
      Argentina, Bolivia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Liberia, Madagascar, Mexico, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Republic of Congo, Suriname, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Vanuatu, and Vietnam.
    For a more current list, see un-redd.org

    UN-REDD Programme - Countries receiving support as of 2012
      Bolivia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Tanzania, Viet Nam, and Zambia.
    For a more current list, see un-redd.org

     

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