Reducing Emissions from Deforestation - Article Example

?Running head: The REDD+ Program The REDD+ Program Forests are the source of a major portion of freshwater around the world and research has shown that the quality of water is affected with decreasing forest cover. In addition, the increased occurrence of floods, landslides and soil erosions has been associated with reduction in forest land area. The forests are also a major source for wood and other non-wood products which are integral for the livelihood of several millions of people mostly from the economically backward population of the world. Thus deforestation would only render people living in forest areas homeless and make survival difficult for those dependent on forest resources. The REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and + refers to conservation and enhancement of carbon stocks) program has been created to reduce carbon emissions from forest lands and to contribute towards sustainable management of the forest ecosystems. Carbon emissions resulting from degradation of forest lands and deforestation carried out for agricultural purposes, infrastructure development, and creation of pasture lands and emissions resulting from forest fires, all contribute about 20% greenhouse gas emissions. It has been well documented that such emissions will have a major impact on the global average temperature. Concrete steps need to be taken to stabilize the average temperature within two degree Celsius and the REDD program has been created with this vision. Through the program developing countries are provided results-based incentives and support for capacity building to reduce the green house gas emissions and implement strategies to conserve the natural ecosystems and more specifically the forest carbon stocks as these have the potential to reduce climatic changes (http://www.un-redd.org; The UN-REDD Programme, n.d; Vhugen, Aguilar & Miner, 2012). In order to further assist developing countries to reduce forest carbon emissions a collaborative program with the UN was launched in the year 2008. The program was initiated with nine pilot countries from 3 continents: Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Zambia from Africa; Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam from Asia-Pacific; Bolivia, Panama and Paraguay from the Latin America and the Caribbean. This program now supports operations in 44 partner countries in designing and implementing the REDD program. Additionally it also helps the participating counties to develop strategies, monitor the system effectively and provides methods, data and tools for the implementation of the program. The program is implemented country-wise and with the feedback given by other countries it supports the conservation of forest lands and reduces deforestation. There has been a gradual rise in the funding for the program as more countries have expressed interest in the program. In addition to the programs formulated for specific countries, the UN-REDD also supports REDD+ readiness through a Global Program in which policies and strategies are commonly developed to help countries in their REDD+ readiness efforts. The UN-REDD program also receives expertise on various issues related to conservation from three other participating organizations namely the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). (The UN-REDD Programme, n.d). Members of the REDD+ program recently recognized the increasing responsibilities of legislators in passing laws and preparing budgets and in order to strengthen the parliamentary role in reducing emissions it has introduced a Globe Legislature Forest Initiative. Through this program legislators can help in reducing deforestation and emissions by providing governmental support, law enforcement, financial scrutiny and accountability. Through this initiative legislation and policies could be shared between nations and thereby contribute to the success of the program. (http://www.unredd.org/Newsletter18/GLOBE_Legislator_Forest_Initiative/tabid/54113/Default.aspx) The activities of REDD+ consists of three phases namely development of national action plans, implementation of these measures and further capacity development and thirdly gathering of results and its verification. The first phase of the program, which is country-specific, is already functioning in the pilot countries while the strategies for phase two in areas such as capacity building and policy strengthening are being charted out. Despite the extensive development of strategies and policies to ensure increased acceptance of the program by all the world countries, the program in itself has some challenges which will have to be overcome. The REDD+ program does contain certain complexities which will have to be competently managed by countries that are part of the program. It is also necessary for the countries to work in harmony and enter into a working partnership with other activities of REDD+ which also help in the design of the national programs. Resource mobilization is another challenge that the program has to meet in order to ensure assistance to countries in the second phase of the program. Security and other social and environmental safeguard measures in addition to design and implementation of the program should also be accounted. In addition to these program challenges there are also certain country-specific challenges such as strengthening of governmental policies and regulations to support the REDD+ program, ensure equal distribution of benefits throughout the country, effective and quick financing for the program, reach an agreement on climatic change pact (The UN-REDD Programme, n.d). In order to ensure a smooth functioning of the program there are also certain legal and regulatory requirements which need to be in place at the country level. It is first vital to create awareness about carbon right which can be defined as the legal right of an individual to gain the benefits from reducing carbon emissions as well as through conservation of carbon resources of the ecosystem. Legal rights to forest land and natural resources are also necessary and the benefits gained from these resources are generally shared by those living in or near the forest area cover. Hence carbon rights also include property rights or ownership rights. The laws involved in REDD+ mainly cover timber products and non-timber forest products which are got from trees. The laws are framed to protect the carbon sequestered in trees as the initiative mainly aims to prevent the cutting of trees (Vhugen, Aguilar & Miner, 2012). Certain legal parameters are already been followed in countries such as payment for the ecosystem services. Apart from carbon rights and property rights legal aspects of REDD also includes livelihood issues, human rights, contracts and use of natural resources. In addition legal experts around the world are working to ensure that the communities dependent on the forests are legally empowered to take part in REDD+ initiatives. Legal solutions and tools required for smooth functioning of REDD activities should be in place and laws are also required to solve legal conflicts and ambiguities that may arise during the process. Thus laws governing all the above aspects can lead to efficient and effective functioning of the REDD activities (UN-REDD and FAO, Dec. 2011/Jan 2012). Agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol have been developed in order to effectively reduce green house gas emissions. The protocol which was adopted in the year 1997 at Kyoto, Japan and came into effect from 2005 sets targets to about 37 industrial nations in addition to European nations through commitments that make the countries adopt various nation-based strategies to effectively reduce these gas emissions. More stringent rules are applied on developed nations as they are the major contributors of green house gases while the developing countries have also given a general agreement to contribute towards reducing emissions. The targets set by the protocol dictates the limit of allowed emissions which has to be adhered during the commitment period (Vhugen, Aguilar & Miner, 2012; Kyoto Protocol, n.d). The protocol exercises its power via three mechanisms namely emission trading, clean development mechanism (CDM) and joint implementation (JI). Through emission trading countries that are released lesser emissions than the permissible limits and have emission units to spare can trade them with other countries that have exceeded their limits (Kyoto Protocol, n.d). Through the CDM countries can create emission offsets by offering support to developing countries for conservation of carbon resources. Through the CDM program the protocol only allows reforestation and afforestation which is essentially replanting and planting of new trees; however, conservation of forest areas by preventing deforestation is not included in the current protocol. There are proposals being made to include forest conservation in the next commitment period of the protocol. Inclusion of forest conservation is highly significant for tropical countries such as Brazil where a large amount of carbon is emitted from fossil fuel emissions and deforestation (Moutinho, Santilli, Schwartzman & Rodrigues, n.d). Thus reduction of deforestation requires agreements such as REDD+ and Protocols such as Kyoto which along with the help of local government and law enforcement can bring about changes in the emission rate and subsequently prevent drastic changes in the global climatic conditions. References 1. UN-REDD 2. The UN-REDD Programme Strategy 2011-2015. (n.d). Retrieved Nov. 1, 2012, from http://www.unep.org/forests/Portals/142/docs/UNREDD%20Programme%20Strategy.pdf 3. UN-REDD and FAO Explore the Legal Dimensions of REDD+ Implementation. (Dec. 2011/Jan 2012).UN-REDD Programme Newsletter. Retrieved Nov. 1, 2012, from http://www.unredd.org/Newsletter25/Legal_Dimension_of_REDD_Implementation/tabid/78571/Default.aspx 4. Vhugen, D., Aguilar, S., & Miner, J. (March, 2012). REDD+ and Carbon Rights: Lessons from the Field. United States Agency International Development. Working Paper. Retrieved Nov.1, 2012, from http://www.landandpoverty.com/agenda/pdfs/paper/vhugen_full_paper.pdf 5. Kyoto Protocol. (n.d). United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Retrieved Nov. 1, 2012, from http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php 6. Moutinho, P., Santilli, M., Schwartzman, S., & Rodrigues, L. (n.d). Why Ignore Tropical Deforestation? A Proposal for Including Forest Conservation in the Kyoto Protocol. FAO Corporate Document Repository. Retrieved Nov. 1, 2012, from http://www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0413e/a0413E06.htm Read More