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.