The United Nations Program on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN REDD Program) is a collaborative program of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) created in response to the UNFCCC decision on the Bali Action Plan and REDD at COP13 in 2008. UN REDD aims to reduce emissions from deforestation and to enhance carbon sinks from forests while contributing to sustainable development at the national level. The UN REDD Program supports nationally led communities who depend on the forest, in national and international REDD+ implementation.

The UN REDD Program works closely with the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF)²¹ and the Forest Investment Program (FIP) in order to streamline support to partner countries. The UN REDD Program is funded by voluntary contributions. A number of donors contributed to the Program during its 2008-2015 phase, with Norway providing a significant portion of the funds. Other donors included the European Commission, Denmark, Japan, Luxemburg, Spain, and Switzerland. The UN REDD Program’s 20162020 governance arrangements allow for the full and effective participation of all UN REDD Program stakeholders, i.e. partner countries, indigenous and civil society organizations, and UN agencies, while ensuring a streamlined decision-making process and accountability criteria.

Regional Focus: By the end of 2017, the UNREDD Program had supported 64 partner countries across Africa (e.g. Benin, Cameroon, Chad etc.), Asia-Pacific (e.g. Bangladesh, Bhutan, Fiji etc.) and Latin America and the Caribbean (e.g. Ecuador, Chile, Peru etc.).

Sector Focus

Four cross-cutting themes have been identified as particularly significant in order to ensure that the outcomes and outputs of the Program will achieve the desired results:

and outputs of the Program will achieve the desired results:

• Forest Governance: Governance of REDD+ covers the decisions, actors, processes, governance arrangements and policy tools needed to design and carry out REDD+ strategies and programs. This involves global and local actors from a wide range of sectors. Governance refers to many factors that policy incentives and responsibilities are assigned, and how actors are held to account.
• Tenure Security: The provision of clear tenure rights over forests provides a motivation to sustainably manage forest resources, thus, contributing to the goal of reducing carbon emissions. Similarly, clarifying tenure rights strengthens the potential for accountability. By identifying who owns, manages and uses forests, a more effective engagement can occur on the ground to address deforestation and forest degradation.
  

  REDD+ was negotiated under the UNFCCC until 2013. It stands for “Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries”.

• Gender Equality: It is widely acknowledged that gender equality and women’s empowerment are catalysts for reaching sustainable development, including in REDD+. However, given various social, economic and cultural inequalities and legal impediments, particularly within the forest sector, women (and often other marginalised groups, such as indigenous peoples, within many societies) continue to experience ongoing exclusion that limit their ability to benefit from REDD+.
• Stakeholder Engagement: It is not merely a matter of integrating the views of the different actors that are affected by REDD+ but also to craft partnerships, consensus and inclusive policies and processes that will make REDD+ transformational, achievable and long-lasting. Approximately 70 million indigenous peoples depend on forests for their livelihoods and another 350 million rural people reside in or near them. Many of these communities have long-standing relationships with forested land and have customary rights that are legally recognized.

Funding Conditions

During the 6^th UN REDD Program’s Policy Board meeting (2011), the following criteria was set for prioritizing funding allocations for new national programs:

• Being a partner country of the UN REDD Program;
• Achieving regional balance;
• Enhanced coordination with other initiatives;
• Ability of UN agencies to assist the country;
• Ability to demonstrate short-term results based on REDD+ early action;
• REDD+ potential;
• Commitment to apply the principles of the UN REDD Program.

Usually, the UN REDD Program is implemented at the national level in three phases. In phase 1, national strategies or action plans, policies and measures are developed, and capacity-building takes place. In phase 2, these plans, policies and measures are implemented. Phase 3 consists of results-based actions i.e. emission reductions or the restoration of carbon sinks is measured, reported and verified against benchmarks.

Application Procedure

National governments, regional development banks and NGOs can receive funding through participating UN organizations, acting as executing agencies. An applicant usually applies at the UNDP country office. If there is no UNDP country office, then the application can be made to FAO or UNEP country offices.

Contact

UN-REDD Program Secretariat

International Environment House,

11-13 Chemin des Anémones

CH-1219 Châtelaine/Geneva, Switzerland

Tel: +41 (0) 22 917 8946

Email: Un-redd@un-redd.org

Website: http://www.un-redd.org

Contact details for selected African countries with UN REDD programs:

Ethiopia:

Mr. Yitebitu Moges National REDD+ Coordinator

P.O. Box 12760, Addis Ababa Tel: +251 912 865584 Email: Yitebitumoges@gmail.com

Kenya:

Mr. Alfred Gichu National REDD+ Coordinator

Officer, Forestry and Climate Change P.O. Box

41394-00100 Nairobi, Kenya Tel: + 254-20

2396440 Mobile: + 254-0722 787403 Fax: +254-

20 2395512 Email: alfredgichu@yahoo.com

Malawi:

Mr. Teddie Kamoto Assistant Director of Forestry,

Forestry Department Lilongwe, Malawi  Email: teddiekamoto@gmail.com

Tanzania:

Mr. Juma Mgoo Chief Executive – Tanzania Forest

Services, Ministry of Environment Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania Tel: +255 784 483 599

Email : jsmgoo@tfs.go.tz