Studies, Reports and Publications

REDD+ Beyond Carbon: Supporting Decisions on Safeguards and Multiple Benefits

The second paper in the UN-REDD Policy Brief Series focuses on REDD+, Multiple Benefits and Safeguards, with specific attention to the use of tools and data to support decisions, illustrated with examples from REDD+ countries.

Draft discussion paper "Towards a holistic assessment of national REDD+ options: Evaluating ecosystem service and biodiversity impacts” presented at the BIOECON conference on Resource Economics, Biodiversity Conservation and Development in Cambridge 2012.

DRAFTS: "Guidelines for monitoring the impacts of REDD+ on biodiversity and ecosystem services" and "An annotated guide to useful resources for monitoring the impacts of REDD+ on biodiversity and ecosystem services".  These working documents are being updated in 2012.

DRAFTS: "Guidelines for monitoring the impacts of REDD+ on biodiversity and ecosystem services" and "An annotated guide to useful resources for monitoring the impacts of REDD+ on biodiversity and ecosystem services".  These working documents are being updated in 2012.

Draft poster produced from a UN-REDD Programme working session on multiple benefits mapping, held at UNEP-WCMC in June 2011, with collaborators from OSFAC and DIAF. 

Executive summary of the review examining the role of biodiversity and related factors in carbon stock resilience. For English version, please see:

http://www.unredd.net/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=134&view=download&alias=3679-executive-summary-a-safer-bet-for-redd-review-of-the-evidence-on-the-relationship-between-biodiversity-and-the-resilience-of-forest-carbon-stocks-3679&category_slug=benefits-for-ecosystems-and-livelihoods-270

This publication brings together eight original articles by experts to tackle head on some of the most difficult questions facing us all: How a stable climate and a productive biosphere can be secured together. Why this is an opportunity for green growth. And how a closer partnership between the multilateral environmental agreements, in particular the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Framework Convention on Climate Change, can help. It also brings together the experience of one of the world’s megadiverse countries in tackling these challenges: Brazil. The publication focuses on one of the most promising mechanisms for mitigating climate change: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD).

Resumen Ejecutivo.

Executive summary of the review examining the role of biodiversity and related factors in carbon stock resilience.

*Executive summary provided in English, French, Spanish and Indonesian*

This paper investigates how efforts to set up monitoring and indicator systems for the multiple benefits of REDD+ can benefit from and/or support the relevant work that has already been initiated or completed under the Rio Conventions. The analysis shows that there is a significant amount of overlap between the subjects addressed by existing or emerging monitoring activities under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the UNFCCC, and the types of data that countries might wish to obtain in order to track the multiple benefits of REDD+. At the same time, due to the differences in mandate and focus of the various processes, there are also discrepancies with regard to the design of indicators and methods for data collection. However, there is still clearly a high potential for mutual support between current work on monitoring under the Rio Conventions and any new schemes to be set up within the context of REDD+. These opportunities should be used to enable a more efficient and coherent implementation of multilateral environmental agreements.

There is a growing belief that the carbon stocks of natural, biodiverse forests are likely to be more resilient to climate change than those of planted, less diverse forests (e.g. Fischer et al. 2006; Bodin and Wiman 2007). Resilience in this context means that forests can resist and or recover from the negative effects of climate change. Resistance and recovery will differ between forests for various reasons. This review examines the role of biodiversity and related factors in carbon stock resilience.

*Executive summary provided in English, French, Spanish and Indonesian* This report summarises the steps needed to design a system to assess and monitor change in ecosystem services resulting from afforestation, reforestation and forest restoration projects or programmes. Design of a monitoring scheme involves identifying how the results will be used, selecting appropriate indicators, defining a methodology for obtaining data and calculating indicators, and deciding how frequently monitoring will be undertaken. This report also refers to useful existing guidance on monitoring and indicators that will be of help in deciding what sort of monitoring to undertake and how to do so.

This document, and the related Multiple Benefits Series 6 on Methods for assessing and monitoring change in the ecosystem-derived benefits of afforestation, reforestation and forest restoration have been produced to support Viet Nam in its goals of attaining multiple benefits from forest. This document provides a basis for estimating the probable impacts of different forest cover creation approaches on the ecosystem-derived benefits of biodiversity, water provision, soil conservation and non-timber forest products. The companion paper provides guidance on designing a monitoring system and selecting to provide direct evidence of impacts.

*Executive summary provided in English, French, Spanish and Indonesian*

This paper provides an overview of the current state of knowledge regarding relationships between carbon and biodiversity in tropical forests.

• At a global scale, tropical forests provide some of the highest levels of biomass carbon storage, productivity and biodiversity.

• Within tropical forests, spatial patterns of carbon dynamics and biodiversity are complex, with limited correlations between these variables.

• There are a number of environmental and historical factors that may have caused the observed variations in carbon dynamics and biodiversity across the tropics.

• The degree to which direct causal relationships exist between carbon dynamics and biodiversity in tropical forests is still uncertain, although experimental work in other ecosystems has shown that biodiversity often promotes productivity and stability.

• Areas of ongoing uncertainty include: the temporal variability of ecosystem processes and their response to environmental change; the importance of interactions between species, and the quantification of carbon stocks and fluxes in tropical soils and below-ground biomass

*Executive summaries provided in English, French, Spanish and Indonesian* This paper investigates the relationship and potential synergies between monitoring systems for carbon stock changes and multiple benefits from REDD+.

*Executive summary provided in English, French, Spanish and Indonesian* This issues paper considers options to safeguard and enhance these benefits under a national REDD+ programme. It assesses the opportunities for and risks to these benefits during REDD+ preparation, design and implementation, measuring, reporting and verification. It focuses on those approaches to REDD+ for which there is scope to safeguard and/or enhance ecosystem-derived benefits, and which are included within the existing national strategies of UN-REDD Programme partner countries. It considers various tools and measures that are available to increase the opportunities for and decrease the risks to these benefits, and suggests some of the likely trade-offs between carbon, ecosystem-derived benefits and cost. Trade-offs may involve exchanging short-term use of resources for long-term sustainable use, or may involve a long-term prioritisation of one benefit over another.