Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, the Philippines and Solomon Islands receive critical funding to support their national REDD+ efforts; Denmark announces US$6 million in additional funding for the UN-REDD Programme and Spain confirms US$1.4 million for 2010.
WASHINGTON, D.C., 5 November, 2010— During its fifth Policy Board meeting in Washington, D.C. from 4-5 November 2010, the UN-REDD Programme approved US$15.2 million in funding for national programmes in Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, the Philippines and Solomon Islands, bringing the total amount of funding for UN-REDD National Programmes to US$51.4 million.
The Policy Board approved US$3 million for Cambodia, US$6.4 million for Papua New Guinea and US$4.7 million for Paraguay. These three countries presented full national programmes that lay out REDD+ readiness plans including setting up MRV, monitoring and governance systems, stakeholder engagement and safeguarding the multiple benefits of forests. Initial national programmes in the Philippines and Solomon Islands were allocated US$500,000 and US$550,000 respectively.
These critical funds support the capacity of national governments to prepare and implement national REDD+ strategies with the active involvement of all stakeholders, including Indigenous Peoples and other forest-dependent communities, with the ultimate goal of protecting, better managing and wisely using their forest resources, contributing to the global fight against climate change. With these new funding allocations, the UN-REDD Programme is now providing direct support to 12 countries while also working with 17 other partner countries across Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America (see list below).
In addition to the new funding allocations, Ecuador and Nigeria also presented road maps for their upcoming national REDD+ programmes, which the Policy Board encouraged them to present at the UN-REDD Programme's sixth Policy Board meeting in Viet Nam in March 2011.
During the first day of the meeting, the Policy Board welcomed new funding from Denmark of US$6 million, adding to the US$2 million that Denmark contributed to the UN-REDD Programme in 2009. Spain confirmed US$1.4 million for 2010, Norway confirmed its intention to continue to support the UN-REDD Programme and Japan announced their consideration to contribute.
"Denmark believes that the UN-REDD Programme can make a valuable contribution to countries preparing for REDD+," said Jørgen Karlsen, Senior Advisor in Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “With the convening expertise of the FAO, UNDP and UNEP, the Programme is well positioned to deliver support to REDD+ countries. Denmark sees the support to the UN-REDD Programme as being part of the overall endeavour to prepare for REDD+ and strongly advocates for harmonization of the different REDD+ initiatives, especially with FCPF and FIP."
Other highlights from the meeting included the endorsement of the UN-REDD Programme's five-year Strategy, which lays out six main work areas that the Programme will focus on to support REDD+ activities in up 20 pilot countries between 2010 and 2015. The Policy Board also heard encouraging progress reports from the five UN-REDD Programme pilot countries that are now in the implementation phase, namely Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Tanzania, Viet Nam and Zambia.
"The UN-REDD Programme is growing by leaps and bounds," said Dr. Yemi Katerere, Head of the UN-REDD Programme Secretariat. "We are sincerely encouraged by the progress we see in our pilot and partner countries, and thank Denmark, Norway and Spain for their commitments to support REDD+ efforts through the UN-REDD Programme."
The policy board meeting was attended by 128 participants from 30 countries, including representatives from the Programme’s member countries, Indigenous Peoples and civil society. Representatives from the Programme’s three donor countries—Norway, Denmark and Spain— were in attendance as well as permanent observers from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Global Environment Facility, three Indigenous Peoples representatives and three CSO representatives from Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Guest observers included representatives from Australia, Chile, Finland, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Agence Française de Développement, Bank Information Centre, Environmental Defense Fund, Ford Foundation, International Alliance, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Interpol, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF).
The meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Vincent Seya Makonga Kasulu, Director of Sustainable Development, Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ms. Veerle Vandeweerd, Director, Environment and Energy Group, Bureau for Development Policy, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The meeting was held at the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington, D.C.
All documents and presentations from the 5th UN-REDD Programme Policy Board meeting are available on the Programme website. The sixth policy board meeting is expected to take place the week of 21-25 March 2011 in Hanoi, Viet Nam, back-to-back with the FCPF's Participant Committee meeting.
