Progress towards REDD+ implementation(1)
icon-redd+ FOREST SOLUTIONS REALIZED

Achieving forest solutions involves the broadest range of actions from policies and measures to implement REDD+ strategies, to achieve sustainable agriculture and forestry, and to implement safeguards and improve forest monitoring in line with high integrity standards. During 2022, the UN-REDD Programme provided technical support in line with the following demands:

Supporting diverse measures to advance the implementation of policies in line with REDD+ strategies (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Indonesia and Democratic Republic of Congo)

Advancing the definition of nesting approaches (Perú) as well as carbon markets and related benefit sharing regulations (Papua New Guinea)

Development of financing strategies (Chile) and design and operation of various funding mechanisms (FONAREDD in Democratic Republic of Congo, IEF in Indonesia and the forest guarantee fund in México)

Addressing the need to enhance the cost effectiveness of REDD+ measures (Colombia)

Supporting establishing or improving SIS (Chile, Congo, Peru, Uganda) and preparing SoI’s (Chile, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico, Uganda), as well as enabling them to comply with high integrity standards (Vietnam, Uganda) and its application to broader climate policies (Ecuador).

Supporting social inclusion and multi-cultural dialogues (Perú and Colombia)

Actions to decouple agricultural and forestry supply chains from deforestation (Colombia, Ecuador, México, Viet Nam)

Enhancing monitoring systems to expand activities, as well as improving the quality, efficiency and national capacity of monitoring systems (Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, México), with a view to also meet more stringent standards such as TREES (Uganda, Papua New Guinea, Ghana,) as well as Technical Annexes (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Supporting updates and enhancing of forest reference levels was also provided (Chile, Papua New Guinea)

icon-redd+FOREST SOLUTIONS REWARDED

Progress towards achieving the mid-decade target of mobilizing $5 billion of results-based financing (RBF) for future anticipated REDD+ results focused on supporting 10 countries: Colombia, Costa Rica, DRC (the province of Tshuapa), Ecuador, Ghana, Peru, PNG, RoC, Uganda and Viet Nam. These countries received technical support for ART-TREES registration documents, which in most cases1 was a step towards accessing RBF from the LEAF Coalition. In the case of Costa Rica, the first TREES monitoring report (2017-2019) was also supported and successfully submitted to the ART Secretariat. Furthermore, support was provided to prepare for recruitment of the Validation and Verification Body, as required by ART.

Costa Rica and Ecuador signed memoranda of agreement (MOA) with the LEAF Coalition in 2022 and are now advancing, with UN-REDD technical assistance, towards signing of emissions reductions purchase agreements (ERPAs). DRC, PNG and Uganda have also each signed a Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with the LEAF Coalition. Total potential REDD+ RBF, 2022-2026, for UN-REDD countries looking to benefit from the LEAF Coalition, is $1 -1.2 billion2.

In addition to the technical assistance provided to potential LEAF suppliers, support was provided to Uganda to draft a national results-based finance strategy aimed at examining existing and evolving results-based payment schemes. This strategy explores key issues for Uganda in accessing these schemes and maximizing revenues for forest and land-use mitigation actions. Following on from the registration document for ART-TREES, UN-REDD continued to support Peru in meeting its Joint Declaration of Intent commitments with Norway. This has contributed to Peru being able to access results-based funding: $10 million through PROFONANPE (the Peruvian Trust Fund for National Parks and Protected Areas) to continue supporting Peru with its efforts to halt deforestation. A roadmap to accessing climate finance from voluntary carbon markets (VCM), in alignment with the NDC, has also been prepared for Peru.
icon-redd+FOREST SOLUTIONS ENHANCED

The UN-REDD Programme has been supporting tropical forest countries in integrating and enhancing LULUCF sector actions related to REDD+ to increase the ambition in their new or updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and to shift towards translating ambition into action in terms of NDC implementation. This includes support for the inclusion of enhanced or new targets or commitments including or relevant to the forest sector, improvements in institutional coordination to support submissions of new or updated NDCs, as well as securing finance to implement enhanced NDC mitigation actions in the forest sector.

According to the UNFCCC Synthesis Report in 2022, 85 percent of “second generation” NDCs include the LULUCF sector, compared to just 73 percent of previous NDCs. To notable extent, this is the result of support from UN-REDD and the UN Climate Promise initiative. While 81 percent of NDCs refer to specific mitigation options in the LULUCF sector, a smaller proportion of new or updated NDCs (43 percent) include a quantitative mitigation target for LULUCF. Furthermore, 31 percent include explicit reference to reducing deforestation, including efforts to implement REDD+. In summary, since 2018, UN-REDD has provided technical assistance to more than 25 countries in enhancing the role of forest-related activities into new or updated NDCs, as well as NDC implementation plans. This has complemented other ongoing efforts, such as UNDP’s Climate Promise, where some 53 countries have requested LULUCF-related support.

In addition, in 2022, UN-REDD supported more than 10 countries (Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Ghana, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Viet Nam and Zambia) in accessing finance and developing work plans to enhance forest sector components of their NDCs, while also integrating gender and social inclusion considerations. The following new and/or strengthened policy measures were achieved with UN-REDD support:

Côte d’Ivoire submitted a revised NDC in March, 2022, mainstreaming Forest-based Solutions into NDC’s mitigation measures. The revised NDC increases ambition from 28.25 percent to 30.41 percent, with due consideration to Forest-based Solutions and other mitigation measures.

DRC developed an NDC implementation roadmap and undertook an exercise to align the FONAREDD portfolio and its revision to LULUCF targets, especially in regard to the land-use sector.

Ecuador developed a REDD+ sustainability strategy, as well as a national certification scheme for deforestation-free production and trade; this includes international finance, private sector engagement and green credit lines for REDD+ compliant rural and territorial development.

In Peru, a roadmap was developed to access climate finance from voluntary carbon markets (VCM), in alignment with the NDC. The roadmap aims to integrate different initiatives under MINAM.

Viet Nam submitted an updated NDC in November, 2022, which, notably, includes raising emissions reductions targets from 9 to 15.8 percent (unconditional) and from 27 to 43.5percent (conditional) across sectors, including LULUCF. In parallel to the process to update the NDC, UN-REDD facilitated discussions with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), which oversees the NDC, and VNFOREST to identify opportunities to finance the implementation of its NDC targets through, among other things, international cooperative approaches under Article 6.

While progress is being made, as the country examples above demonstrate, it is clear that many countries face challenges shifting from pledges to action to ensure that the LULUCF sector, and specifically REDD+, are fully leveraged towards implementation of the NDC and to facilitate both mitigation and adaptation efforts in the forest sector. This points to the value of ongoing support through UN-REDD to strengthen the linkages between NDCs and REDD+ for the forest sector.