The 2018 Annual Report presents the results of the United Nations Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD) between January and December 2018, and the key cumulative achievements since the programme’s launch in 2008.
The report emphasizes progress against the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Warsaw Framework for REDD+ and shares countries’ achievements in advancing REDD+ implementation. Moreover, this year’s report showcases the clear linkages and contributions of the programme work to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including featuring gender more prominently.
The report also highlights annual results at the country level. In 2018, the UN-REDD Programme supported a total of 19 countries through national programmes and technical assistance for REDD+ implementation.
Building on its foundational work between 2008 and 2017, from 2018 the UN-REDD Programme has adopted a dual approach to REDD+ action through technical assistance in nine countries (Colombia, Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, Mexico, Myanmar, Peru, Viet Nam and Zambia) and through global knowledge components. These components share cumulative UN-REDD knowledge and approaches to reach a broader set of countries and stakeholders, organized around key thematic areas.
National programmes in 10 countries helped UN-REDD partners across Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean move closer to fulfilling the requirements under the Warsaw Framework for REDD+. Moreover, technical experts from the UN-REDD partner organizations – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – helped countries move beyond the Warsaw Framework to develop investment plans for resource mobilization and accelerate REDD+ implementation.
Reaching its tenth anniversary in 2018, the UN-REDD Programme has continued to perform a key role at the global level by consolidating and communicating UN-REDD approaches, best practice and knowledge accumulated over a decade, in key thematic areas. The programme has harnessed its expertise and experience in knowledge management to build capacities and reach a broader set of countries and stakeholders in 2018. This included providing access and ideas to inspire innovative solutions, harmonized approaches, best practices, high-quality knowledge products and South-South collaboration to advance REDD+ implementation.
The six key thematic knowledge areas for delivery are:
- landscape approaches;
- forest tenure and the rights of indigenous peoples;
- financing and private sector engagement;
- REDD+ contribution to the SDGs and implementation of the Paris Agreement;
- monitoring, reporting and verification tools;
- and supporting national REDD+ funding mechanisms.
A global, cross-cutting knowledge management and communication work area links the thematic knowledge areas and country elements, boosting their individual and collective impact. This component enables the scaling up and cross-fertilization of ideas and approaches within countries and agencies, essentially forming the foundation that makes UN-REDD a programme.
Building on a decade’s worth of work and achievements, in 2018 the UN-REDD Programme continued to help stakeholders make progress on REDD+ implementation through country technical assistance and the generation of new knowledge on specific actions and linkages with other relevant national and international processes. Real progress on combating deforestation and forest degradation at the country level is dependent on a country’s capacity to include these corresponding targets in relevant national processes and on looking beyond the forest sector, addressing the complex synergies and relations among the different landscape sectors for their implementation.