Myanmar Mangroves

Safeguards

REDD+ aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through maintaining and enhancing forests in developing countries, along with the carbon they store.

Well-planned and managed REDD+ actions can simultaneously lead to further benefits for society and the environment. For example, REDD+ may help conserve forest areas that host endangered wildlife species, improve livelihoods for forest-dependent communities, and enhance services provided by nature, such as water regulation. However, if REDD+ actions are not well-planned, implemented, and monitored, they could pose risks to people and nature, such as conflict over access to land and natural resources, or the introduction of invasive species. Therefore, potential negative impacts and unintended consequences of REDD+ actions must be prevented and reduced. Safeguards are measures that aim to avoid these risks (do no harm) whilst also promoting the desired benefits of REDD+ actions. The Cancun Safeguards are a set of seven social and environmental safeguards that were adopted in 2010 at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC. By effectively applying these safeguards in the national and local context, governments and other actors aim to ensure that REDD+ actions will not have a negative impact on environmental sustainability and social equity but rather contribute to a range of positive outcomes.

In recent years, Myanmar has developed a national safeguards approach (English | Myanmar), with the participation of government agencies, NGOs, communities, and other stakeholders. Forming a key element in the national safeguards approach, the national safeguards clarification (English | Myanmar) consists of 7 principles and 29 criteria, setting out the expectations for how REDD+ should be planned and implemented in Myanmar, and a series of indicators to help track progress, i.e., how the safeguards are being addressed and respected.

The Myanmar Mangroves Initiative has continued to support the implementation of safeguards, with a focus on ensuring the environmental sustainability and social equity of community forestry in mangroves. The initiative focused on the development and piloting of a guidance package on how the safeguards should be applied to actions on the ground, especially in mangrove communities, and the review of community forestry and community-protected area procedures and manuals from a safeguards perspective. XX communities participated in activities to increase awareness of safeguards issues and test elements of the guidance, providing valuable lessons on practical ways to implement safeguards together with communities.