South-South cooperation and knowledge sharing for REDD activities in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)

CHALLENGE

The World Bank assists developing countries in their efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) through loans and grants, including the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. The Facility helps countries arrive at a credible estimate of their national forest carbon stocks and sources of forest emissions, define their baseline scenario, and develop a strategy to reduce emissions that takes into account country priorities and constraints.

A forum for sharing ideas and experience among countries in Latin America and the Carribean as they go through this readiness process is helping address technical issues and develop collective expertise that promotes better REDD outcomes.

APPROACH

PROFOR helped finance a series of participatory workshops organized by the Bank's Latin America and Caribbean region to improve the REDD readiness process in participant countries. 

RESULTS

The World Bank's LAC region held a two-day workshop focusing on contributions from Mexico to the REDD iniatitive on April 26-27, 2010 in Washington DC. The event brought together over 100 development practitioners and civil society organizations working primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean, Nepal and Congo (in person and by videoconference) to learn from Mexico’s extensive community forestry experience. About 65% of the forests in Mexico are owned collectively and about half of the country’s 13 million forest-dwelling people live below the poverty line. Efforts to mitigate climate change through REDD+ schemes in Latin America, where land use change and deforestation contribute most to climate change, will need to build on these local communities.

Speaking at the event, Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom emphasized the links between local actors and global public goods, stressing the importance of local community participation in the management of forests:

Dra. Elinor Ostrom.

More findings and workshop presentations from the April 2010 workshop are available on the follwoing website: http://www.forestandclimate.info/Mexico/Inicio.html

This workshop was followed by a second meeting in Cartagena, Colombia in May 2010 at which Latin American and Caribbean countries supported by the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility shared experiences and practical advice on preparing national REDD strategies and readiness plans.  Some of the key themes included:  measuring, reporting, and verification (MRV) and reference levels for REDD, incorporating environmental and social issues into the readiness process, consultation and participation processes, and linking current mechanisms for payment for environmental services programs to REDD.  The event highlighted good practices for engaging multiple-sectors when formulating an R-PP and for developing institutional and policy frameworks to support a future REDD mechanism.

The event also clarified necessary financial considerations that are needed for the implementation of a sound REDD readiness program. The workshop strengthened regional cooperation and identified technical leaders on specific issues, e.g., MRV (leaders: Mexico and Costa Rica), using a nested approach to implementing REDD (Leader: Peru), and conducting consultation (Leader: Colombia). Continued dialogue and access to information is provided through websites associated with this activity (Presentations and participant lists are available online mainly in Spanish). 

A third workshop in Salta, Argentia in October 2010. was coordinated with other financial sources and additional workshops are being proposed.