A Cloud Forest in Latin America Credit: Larry Hamilton

REDD+ strategies in the UN-REDD Programme’s three Latin American pilot countries (Bolivia, Panama and Paraguay) and among its partner countries in the region (Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico) continue to make significant inroads. Below are some highlight and details from recent and upcoming activities.

Bolivia
23-26 August: the Coordinating Body for the Indigenous People’s Organization of the Amazon (COICA) is organizing an important regional meeting with all the heads of its partner organizations in Bolivia and the UN-REDD Programme has been invited to participate and present in this event.

Paraguay
12 July: The United Nations Resident Coordinator of Paraguay submitted the National Joint Program to the UN-REDD Programme Secretariat, to be considered at the next Policy Board meeting.

Panama
4-7 October: A regional workshop on Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) will be organized in Panama City by the UN-REDD Programme and partners.

Ecuador
14- 17 June: Ecuador hosted the Fourth Field Dialogue on REDD+ readiness
21-25 June: UNEP’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) conducted a mission in Ecuador
19-21 July: The UN-REDD Programme conducted its first joint mission to Ecuador to identify the support the Programme can provide to the government.

Mexico
July: Mexico is operationalising the MOU it signed with Norway in May on REDD+ related activities. In the cadre of the UN-REDD Programme collaborative partnership, FAO and UNDP have been requested to provide support to these activities.

Colombia
August 2010: Colombia is welcomed as a new UN-REDD Programme partner country.

Guatemala
August 2010: Guatemala is welcomed as a new UN-REDD Programme partner country.

Other Partnerships
12-13 July: Brazil’s Ministry of Environment invited the UN-REDD Programme, the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), the Forest Investment Program (FIP) and the Global Environment Fund (GEF) to participate to a two-day meetings to identify the synergies between these multilateral platforms and request support to facilitate the leading role that Brazil wants to play in promoting South-South cooperation on REDD+.