Benefits for Ecosystems and Livelihoods

This briefing provides an update on negotiations under the climate change convention on REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), and their relevance to forest restoration. It has been prepared as part of the REFORLAN project, European Community Sixth Framework Programme contract number 032132. REFORLAN has carried out research on dry forest restoration in Mexico, Chile and Argentina. Hence this briefing has a particular focus on these countries.

The REDD concept has now expanded to REDD+, encompassing also 'conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks'. What opportunities does this open for carbon-focused forest restoration efforts?

This briefing is not a UN-REDD publication.

The OECD has just released a report on Promoting Biodiversity Co-Benefits in REDD.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) in developing countries is a new financial mechanism being proposed under the UNFCCC to help mitigate climate change, and can also provide biodiversity co-benefits. This report examines REDD design elements with possible implications for biodiversity, how biodiversity co-benefits in REDD can be promoted and maximised at the implementation level, and highlights how additional biodiversity incentives can be layered with REDD to target biodiversity benefits directly.

This report builds on an OECD workshop on "Incentives to Capture the Carbon and Biodiversity Benefits for Reducing Deforestation: Linkages, Synergies and Limitations" held on March 26, 2008.

When planning efforts to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, the benefits could be increased by taking account of the distribution not only of carbon, but of other ecosystem services such as biodiversity or non-timber forest products. Here, we map the distribution of carbon stocks in relation to the distribution of these possible co-benefits of
REDD. Other relevant factors such as protected area distribution and fire occurrence are also compared with carbon stocks. A new map of carbon in Tanzania’s ecosystems has been produced for this analysis.

Reducing carbon emissions through slowing deforestation can benefit
biodiversity best if countries implement sensible policies.

Alan Grainger, Douglas H. Boucher, Peter C. Frumhoff, William F.
Laurance, Thomas Lovejoy, Jeffrey McNeely, Manfred Niekisch,
Peter Raven , Navjot S. Sodhi, Oscar Venter and Stuart L. Pimm

The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has launched a synthesis report on the biodiversity/resilience/stability relationship in forest ecosystems. The report strongly supports the conclusion that the capacity of forests to resist change, or recover following disturbance, is dependent on biodiversity at multiple scales. The findings are relevant for the further implementation of the CBD programme of work on forest biodiversity, as well as for efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), as the resilience and stability of forest ecosystems are linked to the permanence of carbon stocks.

Convenient Solutions to an Inconvenient Truth: Ecosystem- based Approaches to Climate Change.

This report attempts to set out a compelling argument for including ecosystem-based approaches to mitigation and adaptation as a third and essential pillar in national strategies to address climate change. The report is targeted at both Bank task teams and country clients. Such ecosystem-based strategies can offer cost- effective, proven and sustainable solutions contributing to, and complementing, other national and regional adaptation strategies.

REDD from an integrated perspective: considering overall climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation and equity issues - Schmidt, Lars (2009) ; Bonn: Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik / German Development Institute (Discussion Paper 4/2009)