Context
Deforestation is one of the major sources of greenhouse gases, accounting for roughly eleven per cent of global emissions. It primarily occurs in the tropical regions of Latin America, Asia and Africa, releasing large quantities of CO2 within a very short period. Depending on the region, the chief causes of deforestation are the expansion of livestock breeding and agriculture – including soybean and palm oil plantations, mining of mineral resources, illegal logging and collection of fuelwood. Forest conservation therefore has a key role to play in climate change mitigation.
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is the concept adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for climate change mitigation through forest conservation. It provides compensatory payments for measurable and verifiable CO2 emission reductions. The carbon stored in forests is thereby designated an economic value and forest conservation is factored into economic decision-making processes.
International donors support REDD+ through bilateral and multilateral initiatives in more than 50 countries.
• The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), hosted by the World Bank
With 18 donors and 47 REDD+ partner countries the FCPF is the largest multilateral REDD+ programme. The FCPFhas shaped the developing international REDD+ standards and will contribute to their further development at least until 2025 by providing practical implementation experiences and lessons learned. Germany is founder of the FCPF and, with its current commitments of 350 million Euro, largest donor, followed by Norway and the UK.
• The joint "GNU-initiative" of Germany (G), Norway (N) and the United Kingdom (UK)
Key elements of the GNU-commitment are the GNU Declaration as a contribution to implement the New York Declaration on Forests of 2014 and the GNU-Statement "Paris Pledge" of December 2015 to provide over 5 billion USD for REDD+ and forest and climate protection activities for the period 2015 – 2020 with an increasing part for results-based finance. GNU focus regions and countries are Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and the Congo Basin.
Objective
German positions for designing and implementing international REDD+ initiatives are incorporated in international programmes, in the GNU-community (Germany, Norway, UK) and in development cooperation projects.
Approach
The German government promotes the conservation of forests and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation. Therewith also climate protection is addressed. These objectives can only be achieved with support of international REDD+ programs, such as the FCPF and initiatives like the GNU-initiative as well as through bilateral and regional development cooperation programs are supported. "REM – International Initiatives" supports decision makers and employees of development cooperation in incorporating German positions for the design and implementation of those programs and initiatives. Thereby it contributes indirectly to the overall objective of climate protection. By avoiding deforestation and forest degradation, through REDD+ programs, further valuable forest ecosystem functions can be maintained, e.g. the conservation of biological diversity and food and income security for the people living in and from the forest.
Results
The BMZ positions itself in the GNU directors board and is able to contribute to strategic considerations with experiences and lessons learned from its bilateral and multilateral engagement (especially in the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and the REDD Early Movers (REM) program), among others valuable to the discussions on further development of triggers for results-based finance.
The BMZ could and can successfully position itself during the selection of emission reduction programs for the FCPF Carbon Fund. With the support of REM "International Initiatives", the BMZ supports the independent evaluation of FCPF and has taken over a coordinating role and the function as a spokesman in the donor community of the FCPF. The BMZ helps shape the Global Forest Observation Initiative (GFOI), an initiative of support to countries in the monitoring of forest areas and land use change. Technical inputs and good practice examples from REM country components and the FCPF Carbon Fund help GFOI adapt its instruments, tools and methodological documents to the needs of REDD+ countries.
Jointly with the FCPF, BMZ has hosted two successful Weilburg conferences. Through these exchange formats, BMZ supports the creation and strengthening of networks of Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent communities and their political positioning in forest and climate change issues. BMZ continuously contributes to the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples‘ and Local Communities’ needs and perspectives into national REDD+ processes and the development of emission reduction programs of the FCPF.
REM "International Initiatives" has a comprehensive overview of the so far existing different approaches and experiences with results based REDD+ finance and promotes the exchange within German development cooperation.