The Next Step in Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD-PAC)

Overview

REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus forest conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks) schemes have the potential to deliver multiple benefits including ecosystem services and social benefits. However, in the international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC), there is no mechanism envisaged to promote REDD+ policies that safeguard and enhance biodiversity and other ecosystem values, and help countries to meet the objectives of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Currently, there is a lack of technical know-how and capacity on reference-level methodologies and on basic action planning for multiple benefits that would ensure the efficiency, effectiveness and environmental integrity of the REDD+ mechanism.

There is also a need to assist and coordinate countries in undertaking initial spatial analyses on multiple benefits and in computing high quality, globally consistent impact assessments of REDD+ policies, in line with the safeguards and sustainability principles negotiated under the UNFCCC and the CBD. 

REDD-PAC (REDD Policy Assessment Centre) will help design and support a fair, efficient and effective international REDD+ architecture. Furthermore, the project will act as a global forum for sharing and improving global data on forests and deforestation drivers, developing reference methodologies and best practices for national REDD+ modelling, as well as more general land-use planning.

IIASA Research

A global land-use model (GLOBIOM) is used to support high resolution REDD+/CBD planning. To that end, the model has been refined for use in scenario analysis of land-use changes under different REDD+ policies, with a focus on Brazil and the member countries of the Central African Forests Commission (COMIFAC) in the Congo Basin.

The complementary expertise of the partner organizations is leveraged to provide a spatially-explicit and multi-criteria assessment of different REDD+ policy options, from an economic, environmental and biodiversity point of view.

Last edited: 02 February 2016