Mongolia's Forest Agency, the country's national REDD+ focal institution, held its first national stakeholder consultation meeting on 12 September to inform Mongolian national institutions, local governments, community groups, the private sector, civil society, academia and development partners about the country's REDD+ plans. This consultation also set out to establish the membership of Mongolia's newly created REDD+ taskforce.

Mongolian mixed aspen-conifer forest on mountain slopes Credits: Patrick Durst

The mandate to create this taskforce came from the country's initial REDD+ consultations in March of this year. Since then, the Forestry Agency under the Ministry of Nature, Environment and Tourism prepared a draft ministerial decree to formally establish the taskforce and ensure it is set up with a balanced representation from a wide range of stakeholders.

Participants at this month's stakeholder consultation were asked to nominate taskforce members, which consist of individuals from the Cabinet Secretariat, line ministries, national human rights commission, the private sector, civil society and academic institutions.  In addition, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), FAO and UNDP have been officially requested to form a technical advisory group to assist the taskforce in preparing the roadmap.

The taskforce and advisory group will spend the next several months to work on detailed stakeholder mapping, gap analyses and recommendations to address existing needs in three key areas: i) drivers of deforestation and forest degradation and strategies; ii) stakeholder engagement and safeguards; and iii) REDD+ assessment and monitoring (MRV and monitoring).

Results of this work in these areas will then be put together into a roadmap, and a number of national-and local-level consultation and validation meetings will be held during this process to ensure the sustainability and national ownership of the roadmap.   The roadmap is currently expected to ready in February 2012.

UN-REDD Programme support of these efforts is being implemented by UNDP, and financed through the UNDP-Japan Partnership Fund and financial support of UNDP Country Office in Mongolia.