REDD countries

Mexico’s REDD+ strategy is not expected to operate as a single programme or policy instrument, but is expected to follow a comprehensive territorial approach in which rural sustainable development acts as the foundation for REDD+ implementation. In this sense, a number of policies and activities are being developed with horizontal and vertical coordination. The National REDD+ Strategy (Estrategia Nacional REDD+, ENAREDD+) therefore considers a number of existing policy instruments and is focused on promoting institutional alignment with sustainable rural development.

Mexico’s REDD+ process started with the development of its Readiness Preparation Proposal (R-PP) under the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of the World Bank in 2008. Following this, in 2010, the Mexican Government published its Vision for REDD+ (Visión de México sobre REDD+: Hacia una Estrategia Nacional), which formed the foundations for the development of the National REDD+ Strategy (Estrategia Nacional REDD+, ENAREDD+). The ENAREDD+ has been designed according to five strategic principles and is planned for implementation between 2012 and 2020. It was originally expected to be launched at the end of 2012 following a public consultation process, however this has not been the case and (as of March 2013) a draft is still undergoing review.

A number of national plans developed by the associated government agencies relate to climate change, natural resource management, land tenure and rural sustainable development and are therefore relevant to REDD+. The Special Programme on Climate Change (Programa Especial de Cambio Climático, PECC) was developed in 2009 and is based primarily on two previous policy documents; Toward a National Climate Action Strategy 2005-2006 (Hacia una Estrategia Nacional de Acción Climática, HENAC) (2005-2006) and the National Climate Change Strategy (Estrategia Nacional de Cambio Climático, ENACC). The PECC commits federal government departments to meet national mitigation and adaptation goals in the short-term and includes a long-term vision in establishing mitigation goals for 2020, 2030 and 2050.  Other relevant national programmes are the Strategic Programme for the Forestry Sector 2025 (Programa Estragetico Forestal para México 2025, PEF), the Special Concerted Programme for Rural Sustainable Development 2007-2012, the Toward Gender Equality and Environmental Sustainability Programme 2007-2012 and the Climate Change Strategy for Protected Areas, among others.

The Climate Change Strategy for Protected Areas (Estrategia Cambio Climático para Áreas Protegidas,ECCAP) focuses on both climate change adaptation and mitigation, with the establishment of REDD+ programmes within and around protected areas central to its mitigation objectives (CONANP, 2011).

Each state in Mexico is required to complete a Climate Change Action Plan (SCORE, 2011). At the sub-national level a number of states are therefore currently developing their State Level Action Programmes on Climate Change (Programas Estatales de Acción ante el Cambio Climático, PEACC). In the State of Campeche, for example, a regional plan is under development that should ultimately support a Regional Strategy on Climate Change in the Yucatan Peninsula for the states of Quintana Roo, Campeche and Yucatan. Other states have signed agreements to promote REDD+ at the state level, for example Chiapas has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Acre (Brazil) and California (USA).

Under the international negotiations within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Mexico supports REDD+. It encourages the use of community forest management practices as a basis for REDD+ implementation and therefore supports REDD+ activities that engage forest owners and indigenous groups, while respecting their local traditions and knowledge (PERRON-WELCH, 2011). Mexico endorses the use of public funds for the readiness phase and advocates for an efficient mix of public and private market-based financing mechanisms to support the implementation stage. Mexico supports subnational implementation as an interim measure and proposes that REDD+ should be considered as a nationally appropriate mitigation action (NAMA), but that it should also be treated differently due to its complexity (PEÑA DEL VALLE et al. 2010).