Safeguards and Multiple Benefits in a REDD+ Mechanism

IISD has partnered with the ASB Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins at the World Agroforestry Centre (ASB-ICRAF) to deliver a project that builds policy capacity in developing countries engaged in United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations related to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+).

This paper explores the relationship between safeguards and multiple benefits in REDD+ activities, focusing on the possible institutional and governance structures that could facilitate attaining multiple benefits and respecting safeguards. It highlights key issues for further negotiation and explores options for moving forward. A draft of this paper was developed as an input to two regional workshops delivered by IISD and ASB-ICRAF. The workshops, REDD+ after Cancun: Moving from negotiation to implementation, took place in Douala, Cameroon, May 10-12, 2011 and Hanoi, Vietnam, May 18-20, 2011. The development of the paper was informed by discussions of the REDD Development Dividend Task Force during a meeting held in January 2011, and was finalized following the May 2011 workshops to reflect input from participants and main messages from the workshops.

The project is funded by NORAD under its Climate and Forest Initiative 2010 civil society support program.