Book Description

The aim of this publication is to inform countries about the latest developments in the Measurement, Reporting and Verification for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, and the role of sustainable management of forests, conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks, known as REDD+. It provides an update on forest reference (emission) levels (FREL/FRLs) and REDD+ results submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The report illustrates the choices that countries made when they constructed their FREL/FRLs and areas for improvement identified during technical assessments. The report also provides an update of the evolving context of REDD+, including a summary of the Green Climate Fund’s recently approved pilot programme for results-based payments for REDD+. As of early 2018, the following REDD+ measurement, reporting and verification milestones had been achieved: Thirty-four countries had submitted 38 FREL/FRLs to the UNFCCC for technical assessment. The UNFCCC had published 22 FREL/FRL technical assessment reports, and a further 16 technical assessments were ongoing. Four countries had reported REDD+ results to the UNFCCC through five REDD+ results submissions (in the REDD+ technical annex of their biennial update reports), totalling more than 6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent in emission reductions, mostly in Brazil. All five technical analyses of REDD+ results had been completed. Eighty-eight percent of the countries that had submitted FREL/FRLs had completed or were establishing national forest inventories.