Created in
2008 the UN-REDD (United
Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from
Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) is a
programme aiming to help reduce emissions caused by deforestation by
subjugating conservation and sustainable forest management in the
major tropical forest bearing countries, that may not be able to
afford this development themselves. This will not only reduce the
amount of emissions being produced by deforestation, but hopefully
better the forest carbon stocks too. UN-REDD is part of a greater
REDD+ climate change mitigation scheme which will be looked at in
future posts.
It appears that there are a lot of people, including the FAO, are backing this programme and it seems to be well prepared for the large task ahead. From reading the UN-REDD strategy, it is planned that by 2015 the programme will develop a 25% reduction in global deforestation rates, a very significant and ambitious statistic.
It appears that there are a lot of people, including the FAO, are backing this programme and it seems to be well prepared for the large task ahead. From reading the UN-REDD strategy, it is planned that by 2015 the programme will develop a 25% reduction in global deforestation rates, a very significant and ambitious statistic.
To
implement this change, the programme needs a financial sum of
US$22-38 billion which will be used to aid developing countries in
creating monitoring systems to better understand their forests and
also to help them to be managed in a more sustainable manner. So far
Norway is leading the funding with hopes of many other countries to
follow. However, the programme must be careful how they obtain their
funding. Some countries may see the funding as an offset for their
own emissions, but this should not mean that they do not try to
reduce their own emissions too.
These are the countries benefitting from the programme (coloured blue and red) |
This
scheme seems like a great and noteworthy project, but it does also
have downsides. As in most scenarios there must be a trade-off and
within the UN-REDD strategy it may be that biodiversity may be at
risk when forest carbon stocks are enhanced. Of course this trade-off
will be carefully monitored to ensure indigenous people and rare
species are not affected.
In
a 2009 paper by Oestreicher et al.
they look at how some environmental policies work in Panama, with the
aim of discerning whether REDD could better the policies for future
use. The paper mainly focusses on Protected Areas, a policy which
they feel could be enhanced by proper funding, something the UN-REDD
programme can provide. They also state that 'effectively reducing
deforestation will rely on a mechanism that endorses a blend of
different environmental policy instruments and conservation program
structures that are able to adapt to local conditions while
functioning under the umbrella of a publicly administered REDD
scheme'. This is exactly what UN-REDD is, so hopefully the programme
will work!
Be sure to check out the UN-REDD website for more information on how the programme is getting on!
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