The UN-REDD Programme is celebrating 10 years of successfully working with 64 countries to achieve climate and forest goals. The Programme will continue to play a key role at the global level to strengthen countries capacity to better protect, manage and monitor their forests, to advance forest-related investments in partner countries and to support strategies and market access for deforestation-free agriculture commodities as a measure to halt deforestation and ultimately deliver emission reductions.

The 10-year anniversary represents a positive momentum to not only evaluate the Programme’s past successes but to plan future work. To do so, the UN-REDD Programme Executive Board met for the second time in Rome on 18 and 19 October 2018, hosted by FAO. The Executive Board is composed of representatives of donors, UN-REDD Programme countries, Indigenous Peoples, civil society organizations, and the participating UN agencies (FAO, UNDP and UN Environment).

The successes of recently completed country programmes were shared, demonstrating how REDD+ processes are having an impact at a country level. The outcome of the Cote D’Ivoire National Programme has shown how leveraging high-level political support can lead to quick and substantive progress on REDD+, having finalized their National REDD+ Strategy, as well as their Forest Reference Emission Level which has been submitted and assessed by the UNFCCC. It was also noted that Cote d’Ivoire’s national approach to REDD+, which is linked to the country’s strong agriculture sector and its cocoa industry, can be an interesting example on how to mobilize the private sector and various international partners to shift deforestation trends and restore the country’s forest cover.  

Uganda also demonstrated rapid progress in its REDD+ process, including the finalization of its REDD+ Strategy and Forest Reference Emission Level, and its plans to operationalize its REDD+ Strategy through four different emission reduction programs for key Water Management Zones.   The country has also shown how close coordination of international support can lead to quicker results and more coherent approaches for REDD+ implementation, and that supporting a broad consultation process that involve sectoral ministries, civil society, communities, as well as the private sector, can help build a national REDD+ process that truly answers the needs and concerns of various stakeholder groups.

Results from Colombia show that REDD+ can be a catalytic element for different policy processes, including the Peace Process that are related to forest and land use governance, providing the tools to monitor deforestation and feed into national debates, and how REDD+ has been driving the organization and strengthening of Indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities.

During the meeting, the Board also approved the UN-REDD Programme’s 2019 Work Plan and Budget, which has identified nine countries — Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Indonesia, Mexico, Myanmar, Peru, Republic of the Congo, Viet Nam and Zambia — where in-country support will be catalytic in achieving each country’s particular REDD+ goals, coupled with robust global knowledge and capacity-building activities.

The Executive Board meeting was also the occasion for the launch of a new publication which outlines how technical support from FAO provided through the UN-REDD and other programmes has helped countries make significant advances in forest monitoring, including data collection and analysis and transparency in reporting.

"The meeting highlighted the significant progress by the UN-REDD programme not only in 2018, but overall during its 10-year existence in strengthening  country capacity to improve forest-related governance and strengthen institutions, engage civil society, empower women, and access and apply technological innovation for forest monitoring, all  contributing to the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the achievement of the SDGs," said Eva Muller, Director of  Forestry Policy and Resources, FAO and co-chair of the meeting.

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