REDDex
News and updates
Presentations, Audio and Session Summaries
Presentations from REDDex have been posted in Session Outcomes, and can be reviewed easily within the webpage using the Slideshare viewer. Those presentations for which audio was recorded are formatted as a Slidecast (look for the yellow banner). With Slidecast, you can listen to audio while watching presentations in the form of a webinar. Just click on the presentation of interest in Session Outcomes, and audio will begin playing (be sure to have the volume turned up on your computer). No need to click through the slides, the audio is synced to the slides and they will advance automatically in time with the audio! We hope you enjoy this unique means of revisiting the conference sessions. If you wish to download any of the presentations, simply click on the PDF located below the Slideshare display (note, this will only download the presentation, not the audio). Summaries of each session (along with breakout discussions) are also posted in Session Outcomes section.
Participant Takeaways Posted
Interested in what the biggest takeways were for your fellow conference participants? View a summary of all participant answers to the question posed at the closing synthesis session HERE.
Insider Observations: Two countries, two situations
By: Scott Belan, The Nature Conservancy
The afternoon sessions kicked off with a case study of REDD in Indonesia. Jack Hurd (TNC) led a roundtable presentation by Dr. Tonny Soehartono (Indonesia Ministry of Forestry), Dr. Herlina Hartano (TNC) and Marco Albani (McKinsey). The panel covered a lot of ground, focusing on Policy, Finance and Low Carbon Development Strategies.
From national policy, to determining how to pay for REDD work ,to moving into the development stage of the Conservancy’s Berau Forest Carbon program in 2011, the questions of how to work across sectors and how to bridge expectation gaps between district, province and national governments were paramount.
Another key point was that emissions reduction strategies must be connected with economic development opportunities. Marco was blunt on this point: “Conservation is dead in the water without economic development.” If The Nature Conservancy wants to reduce deforestation in a nation that is 71% forest area, we have to accept alternatives to logging and land clearing, such as coal-bed methane extraction or development of downstream pulp mills, that might not seem to fit in a standard conservation paradigm.
Some of the same themes carried over into the last presentation of a packed day: REDD in Brazil. Fernanda Carvalho (TNC) got things going with the Amazon Fund, voluntary emissions reduction targets and a national cap-and-trade program (or, as she put it, “To offset or not to offset – that is the question.”)
Natalie Unterstell (Amazonas State Center for Climate Change) and Laurent Micol (Instituto Centro de Vida) showed just how complex forest carbon work is in Brazil. In Amazonas, which is 98% forested and home to 66 indigenous groups, the Bolsa Floresta program gives thousands of local families positive incentives to conserve forests; in Mato Grosso , which has lost 37% of its forested land, rates of destruction are tied to increased agricultural production. The question: how can we untie them, so that forest protection and agricultural yields can rise simultaneously?
The afternoon ended with Ian Thompson (TNC) talking about pilot projects and the need for engagement on all levels, from government to indigenous people to civil society.
What did we learn from these country case studies? Scaling is a challenge, whether it’s up from municipal projects or down from federal plans. There will be no stanching deforestation without alternative economic development. And REDD can’t be one-size-fits-all: every project is different, and success will require a multitude of approaches.
Insider Observations: Capacity and open dialogue
Ken Andrasko (World Bank) is a true expert on REDD+ and in his current position as senior carbon finance specialist at the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), he has been involved with many counties as they start to develop their REDD+ initiatives and design readiness and implementation plans.
Ken is in as good a position as anyone to compare countries’ experiences with REDD+ readiness, and he shared a few key lessons:
1. Capacity is needed in local communities, national capitals and donor organizations to transform policies into sustainable REDD+ programs and low emissions development strategies.
2. Consultations are unquestionably a key for REDD – you have to figure out how the government has a healthy, open dialogue with stakeholders.
And he also offered a prediction, that moving forward, we are going to see REDD+ embedded in larger low carbon development strategies.
Insider Observations: Go deep and catalyze
Go deep and catalyze national REDD+ programs in a few strategic places sums up the strategy for TNC’s forest carbon strategy. To explain this strategy, Greg Fishbein (The Nature Conservancy) kicked off the session by taking stock of The Nature Conservancy’s strengths that can be leveraged for REDD+, as well as an honest assessment of where others are in the lead. Two areas that differentiate TNC from peer organizations are the ability to translate lessons from the ground into policy, and the integrated platform that allow us to take good science and field experiences to Capitol Hill, not to mention on-the-ground expertise. Leaders in other areas include CI and WWF in reducing demand for high-carbon products, and the World Bank and McKinsey in developing low carbon growth plans. Building on these strengths, TNC’s forest carbon work is focusing on jurisdictional approaches across multiple land uses working closely with government partners.
In her review of WWF’s forest carbon strategy, Liliana Davila Stern (WWF Mexico) pointed out the many areas of overlap including the development of learning platforms on pathways to REDD+ success. There are clearly many opportunities for TNC, WWF and other environmental and development NGOs to collaborate.
There is certainly plenty of work to be done, and there are increasingly more resources being brought to bear on the issue. Ulrich Apel (GEF) reminded us that the GEF is the largest financier of forests and is focusing 25% of the next replenishment on REDD+ and sustainable forest management.
Insider Observations: Show me the money
By: Matt Barrett, Policy Outreach Specialist - The Nature Conservancy
REDDeX kicked off today with a session focused on the big picture. What is the state of the world’s tropical forests and what is the current state of play in the REDD+ domain from a holistic view (policy, funding, US government, developing country governments and private sector investment).
The session, moderated by Glenn Hurowitz—Director of U.S.-based Avoided Deforestation Partners—was divided into three segments.
First, a handful of experts each shared one short REDD story in rapid-fire anecdotal style. Participants included Liliana Davila-Stern (WWF in Mexico), Louis Blumberg (The Nature Conservancy in California), Ana Christina Fialho de Barros (The Nature Conservancy in Brazil) and David Ganz (Director of Forest Carbon Science at the Nature Conservancy).
Second, Glenn moderated a “Meet the Press”-style conversation regarding the future of REDD+ with five panelists representing different areas within the REDD domain. Participants included Tonny Soehartono (Indonesia Forest Protection/Nature Conservation), Natalie Unterstell (Amazonas State), Ken Andrasko (World Bank), Duncan Marsh (TNC), and Diane Fitzgerald (American Electric Power). The panel discussion revolved around two scenarios.
Scenario 1: REDD+ provisions – including offset/crediting provisions – are included in a new US Climate law and/or International agreement
Scenario 2: Congress does NOT pass U.S. climate legislation and international negotiations are unable to secure a binding agreement
Third, the audience answered two poll questions to determine the room’s collective opinion on the #1 challenge/area of focus under each of the two scenarios discussed by the panel (posted HERE).
The session seemed to identify two key areas of focus for folks working in the REDD domain. These two key points seem also to raise a bit of a chicken and egg challenge.
1) There is a significant need, now, to increase capacity building in developing countries—both in government agencies as well as on-the-ground. Increased capacity is absolutely critical if we ever want to be able to fully capture and utilize even current levels of REDD+ funding, let alone the levels of financing that could come out of a forest carbon market that includes REDD+. As Ana Christina (TNC Brazil) pointed out, countries like Brazil need to be able to do a better job of converting the money they receive from current funding mechanisms into conservation results. Ken Andrasko (World Bank) reinforced this point saying that there is currently a significant gap between the charts and graphs that policy makers and macro planners make and envision and the level of funding that developing countries are currently able to capture in practice.
2) Show me the money. Ultimately, developing countries need to be able to see the monetary value in taking on REDD+ and scaling up to a national level. As Glenn pointed out, we need to “change the economic calculus.” And yet, as Diane Fitzgerald (American Electric Power) cautioned, without a US law and/or International binding agreement that includes a market for credits from REDD+ activities, it will be difficult to maintain private sector interest in investing in such activities. Likewise it will be difficult to show developing countries the monetary benefits they expect to see for their government and for local communities—benefits that are so critical in incentivizing communities to keep their forests standing and more sustainably managed rather than deforested and degraded. Current drivers on the ground make many tropical forests “more valuable dead than alive right now” as Glenn said.
A few words from The Nature Conservancy's CEO, Mark Tercek
Missed the conference introduction? That's ok - watch TNC's CEO Mark Tercek short video on REDD, broadcast at the beginning of REDDeX.
