It is evident from many recent events supporting countries to “seal the deal” and sending messages to the COP15 that there is a willingness and commitment to collaborate in order to make REDD doable and cost effective.
For the UN-REDD Programme, collaboration takes many forms, at various levels. Our principal partners are the developing countries, whose REDD readiness efforts we support, and donors that provide financial resources. The Programme offers countries a platform to exchange ideas and lessons, methods and technologies as well as technical and financial support to pilot REDD projects. So, we are proud to welcome six new countries to the UN-REDD family -- Argentina, Cambodia, Ecuador, Nepal, Sri Lanka -- who have officially joined the Programme, and Denmark, who is now the UN-REDD Programme’s second donor.
Secondly, we are working more closely than ever with the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF). The management teams of both initiatives met at the end of September to discuss further coordination and harmonization of efforts and to examine opportunities to do more to increase efficiency and reduce costs. The teams agreed to adopt a common framework for country readiness to allow for direct and easy cross-referencing of the contributions the two initiatives make to national readiness processes. In countries where both initiatives are present, they will also seek joint missions and a common institutional counterpart to avoid duplication, increase efficiency and reduce transaction costs to the countries.
The UN-REDD Programme is also engaged in initial discussions with the Forest Investment Programme (FIP) as it gets ready to select pilot countries.
Lastly, the UN-REDD Programme works with academia, civil society organizations, indigenous peoples and many more. The UN-REDD Programme faciliates national and regional consultations with civil society and indigenous peoples and representatives of the two groups take part in the UN-REDD Programme’s Policy Board as full members.
Yemi Katerere
Head of the UN-REDD Programme Secretariat
