Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (Redd): Implementation Issues

This article was finalised prior to the Copenhagen Conference of the Parties (‘COP15’) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (‘UNFCCC’), held in December 2009. At the COP15, parties failed to agree on a new, binding international pact to supplement or replace the UNFCCC for the period after 2012 (when current targets set under the Kyoto Protocol expire). Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (‘REDD’) was one of the few issues to achieve significant, widespread support at COP15. The non-binding ‘Copenhagen Accord’, agreed by a group of parties at COP15, and noted by the Conference of Parties (‘COP’), recognised ‘the crucial role’ of REDD and agreed on the need to provide ‘positive incentives’ for REDD through ‘the immediate establishment of a mechanism … to enable the mobilization of financial resources from developed countries’.[1] Given this international endorsement of REDD at COP15, the implementation issues discussed in this article are all the more pertinent.