Progress against the Warsaw Framework
National REDD+ Strategies or Action Plans National Forest Monitoring Systems Forest Reference Emission Levels/Forest Reference Levels Safeguards and Safeguard Information Systems

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NATIONAL REDD+ STRATEGIES OR ACTION PLANS

Since 2008, UN-REDD has supported 34 countries to prepare and advance national REDD+ strategies or action plans, in line with the UNFCCC Warsaw Framework for REDD+. Of these, 31 have finalized these strategic policies, which cater for nature-based emissions reductions from the forest and land-use sector. During the development of the REDD+ strategy or action plan, UN-REDD supports countries to undertake an in-depth analysis of deforestation drivers, applying a socially inclusive approach, centered on stakeholder engagement and respect for the rights of indigenous peoples and forest communities, and embedding capacity-building for governments and other key stakeholders for REDD+ actions. National strategies or action plans for REDD+ include measures to integrate social and environmental safeguards: in particular, measures for more transparent governance and gender mainstreaming, and that contribute to the SDGs.

UN-REDD also supports the integration of such strategies and actions plans into the land-use and forest sector components of NDCs for climate change mitigation. As countries are currently revising their original NDCs, the efforts over the years towards comprehensive and participatory REDD+ readiness represent a strategic opportunity for countries to strengthen their NDCs in this key but complex sector. The national REDD+ strategy provides the foundation to revise, update and enhance their NDCs in countries such as Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Mexico, and Myanmar. In order to ensure the environmental  integrity of emissions reductions from the forest sector, Peru and Zambia were supported in the development of a national REDD+ Nesting framework.

As a result of the catalytic support provided by UN-REDD since 2008, many partner countries are actively implementing a wide range of investment plans, policy reforms, economic incentives, and institutional measures to reduce emissions from the forest sector. Furthermore, eight countries have completed the REDD+ cycle, having accessed the GCF’s pilot program on RBPs for REDD+. UN-REDD is supporting countries to access a wide range of financing sources in support of the implementation of their REDD+ strategies or action plans, as well as to rewards results. Additional details are provided in the sections on Progress towards REDD+ Implementation and  REDD+  Funding Mechanisms in this report.

In 2020, the following advances with regards to NS/AP were made with UN-REDD support:

Myanmar’s national REDD+ strategy, for which endorsement was delayed due to the difficult COVID context, was further revised by the Forest Department in parallel to the NDC revision process, in order to ensure alignment. The strategy was being processed for approval by the cabinet in the first quarter of 2021, though the current political turmoil may delay this further.

Peru established a monitoring framework with joint indicators for its national REDD+ strategy and the Joint Declaration of Intent between Norway, Germany, and the UK’s REDD+ priority actions.

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NATIONAL FOREST MONITORING SYSTEMS:

Over the last 13 years, capacity development supported by UN-REDD has given rise to unprecedented transparency in terms of country-level forest data, providing countries with the ability to meet international reporting requirements for REDD+ under the enhanced transparency framework of the Paris Agreement. Since its inception, UN-REDD has supported more than 45 countries in developing NFMS through national programmes, targeted support, or technical assistance strengthening the NFMS pillars of satellite land monitoring systems (SLMS), national forest inventories (NFI), and GHG inventories. Forest monitoring support under UN-REDD is designed to address country-specific needs, enabling national and local forest policymaking with up-to-date, reliable, transparent and easily accessible information.

UN-REDD materials and open-source software were used in 2020 to support the collection of ground and remotely sensed data in a number of countries including Argentina, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Liberia, Mexico, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Panama, Thailand and Zambia. The Programme provided technical support for maintaining and developing forest monitoring information systems during 2020 in the Republic of Congo and Côte d’Ivoire (activity data collection including degradation and GHG inventory design), while in Colombia the Programme updated the road map for NFI implementation. For improved dissemination of NFMS information in a transparent way, UN-REDD supported the construction of activity data for the FREL in Zambia. An additional 22 countries have been supported in the development, deployment and launch of operational national web geospatial platforms for transparently disseminating NFMS information.

A total of 18 countries have received direct technical support and have implemented NFIs since UN-REDD began its work, significantly strengthening forest data for national and international needs. UN-REDD provided support to ground and satellite data processing through the Open Foris (OF) suite of free open-source software tools, with more than 28,000 downloads and installations from 2012 to date. Testing of and training in the OF tools has been carried out with UN-REDD technical assistance in Myanmar and Zambia. In addition, steady progress has been achieved in the conversion of OF tools into a new cloud-based system, Open Foris Arena, which is scheduled to be launched in mid-2021. These efforts, made possible by contributions from UN-REDD, will better serve NFMS and related capacities for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV).

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FOREST REFERENCE EMISSION LEVELS/FOREST REFERENCE LEVELS:

Of the 54 countries that had submitted FREL/FRL to the UNFCCC secretariat by January 2021, around 54 per cent (29 countries) had received UN-REDD support. Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Kenya and Mexico submitted updated and improved FREL to the UNFCCC in early 2020. The support of the Programme, either through direct work in 2020 or building on previously provided assistance, also enabled four countries (Cambodia, Peru, Suriname and Zambia) to finalize their FRELs/FRLs and re-submit them in early 2021.

The Programme built in-country capacity and understanding of FREL/FRL through training on the UNFCCC requirements, and information on the policy and technical implications of FREL/ FRL construction. The critical value of FREL/FRL is that they allow countries to publicly demonstrate and be rewarded for REDD+ results. Three countries received support to assess and report REDD+ results to the UNFCCC secretariat (Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador). This support was provided through methodological work and consultations with a range of stakeholders from government ministries, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia and the private sector. To date, REDD+ results have been submitted by a total of 14 countries around the world (Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea and Uganda). About one-fifth of these countries did so with the support of UN-REDD, helping them to gain international recognition and mobilize financial rewards.

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SAFEGUARDS AND SAFEGUARDS INFORMATION SYSTEMS :

To date, UN-REDD Programme has supported directly (through technical assistance) or indirectly (through technical feedback and knowledge exchanges) 36 developing countries with their approaches to meeting UNFCCC safeguards requirements. Key achievements in 2020 include:

Two countries (Peru and Myanmar) finalized their summaries of information and submitted these to the UNFCCC. The global progress with summaries of information by the end of 2020 is presented in Figure 1 here.

Six countries advanced in the design and operation of their safeguards information systems (SIS) at the national level. Côte d’Ivoire and Zambia made significant progress in the development of their SIS platforms, and Myanmar made progress on the operationalization of its SIS, including the development of an interim SIS webpage. Also, Peru advanced in the development of content for the SIS and the associated online platform, and Mexico worked on updating its SIS to improve information gathering and sharing for different scales and stakeholders. In addition, some countries, namely Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Mexico, Myanmar, and Zambia, strengthened their efforts to collect safeguards information by developing and using templates to gather information from diverse institutions. Chile developed and launched a co-benefits system of the national strategy; this system is separated from the country’s SIS, but contributes to share safeguards-related information. Figure 2 presents the global progress with SIS by the end of 2020.

Knowledge and experience were shared on the design and implementation of SIS in a regional exchange in Latin America. Representatives from five countries (Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Paraguay) gathered to discuss progress in the region related to SIS, as well as challenges and lessons learned in relation to the collection, processing, analysis, and reporting of information on safeguards

Two technical briefs on REDD+ safeguards were developed and shared. The first brief addresses the topic of SIS, and provides recommendations on moving from design to operation; the second brief is on summaries of information, particularly on initial experiences and recommendations of international REDD+ safeguards reporting.

Highlights of safeguards achievements through UN-REDD Programme support in 2020 include the following:

Côte d’Ivoire advanced in the development of its SIS platform, including the development and use of a template to gather safeguards information from diverse institutions. The information was being compiled and reviewed at the time of writing.

Myanmar made progress on the operationalization of its SIS, including the development of an interim SIS webpage.

Peru finalized and submitted its first summary of information.