This week, the Government of Norway will host the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference, which will seek to establish an interim partnership arrangement for REDD+. Conference organizers have written, “This partnership would aim to ensure rapid implementation of a global coordinated effort to preserve the world’s tropical forests, in line with UNFCCC decisions.”
The UN-REDD Programme supports this process, motivated by our own commitment to ensure country-led REDD+ initiatives around the world continue to be successful. Countries have called for a better, more streamlined approach to support their REDD+ strategies... and we have listened.
This month, the UN-REDD Programme met with the secretariats of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and Forest Investment Program (FIP) to begin the design of a coordinated delivery mechanism to support REDD+ readiness at the country level.
The Global Environment Facility, the UN Forum on Forests, the Amazon Fund and the Congo Basin Forest Fund also joined in some of these discussions. Once agreed, this delivery mechanism, with a standardized set of operating principles and common standards, will allow countries to draw on the combined strengths and expertise of the leading multilateral agencies in the REDD+ space.
In their draft partnership document, organizers of the Oslo Conference recently proposed that the UN-REDD Programme and the FCPF teams could provide secretariat services to the proposed REDD+ interim arrangement. The UN-REDD Programme and the FCPF teams have, in turn, jointly stated that we are, “ready to provide the services envisaged in the partnership document in an effective and efficient manner.”
As also stated in our joint response, we “remain fully committed to a comprehensive, coordinated approach to the provision of REDD+ services so as to address country needs in a timely and collaborative manner at a scale required to address the enormous challenges presented by climate change.”
We look forward to an outcome from the Oslo Conference that provides coordinated and efficient support to country-led REDD+ initiatives. We also wish to reiterate that the UN-REDD Programme will continue to work with our key partners to ensure countries have access to the support needed to realize their REDD+ objectives.
Yemi Katerere
Head of the UN-REDD Programme Secretariat
