Progress on REDD+ in Durban

From the COP17 decisions posted on the UNFCCC website, it is evident that COP 17 made good progress in REDD+ in both the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action and in the SBSTA.

Holding Pattern for REDD Financing under the Decisions of the Ad Hoc Working Group on LongTerm Cooperative Action
Approval of multiple sources of finance for REDD+, including public and private, bilateral and multi-lateral. Paragraph 66 notes that "... appropriate market-based approaches could be developed by the Conference of Parties to support results-based actions in developing country Parties .... (while paragraph 67) notes that "... non market based approaches ... could be developed."

The AHWG-LCA asked that interested parties and observers should submit their views to the Secretariat, the Secretariat should prepare a technical paper for consideration at a workshop, a workshop report should be prepared, and all of this should be considered by the SBSTA at its next meeting.

See Section C, pages 12-13.
http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/durban_nov_2011/decisions/application/pdf/cop17_lcaoutcome.pdf

Clarity on REDD+ Safeguards and Reference Emission Levels under the SBSTA
The SBSTA provided new guidance on the systems that countries should use in their REDD+ strategies or action plans to provide information on how safeguards are addressed and respected. The safeguards are detailed in paragraph 2 of Appendix I of the Cancun Agreement from 2010, and include issues related to transparent governance structures, respect for the the knowledge and rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, full and effective participation of relevant stakeholders, conservation of biological diversity, and minimizing leakage and reversals. http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2010/cop16/eng/07a01.pdf#page=2

The SBSTA also provided direction on the modalities that countries should use to specify forest reference emission levels (which requires very good data on changes in forest stocks) or forest reference levels (which only requires data on forest stocks). Countries are allowed to adopt processes that match with the sophistication of their monitoring and measurement systems, including situations in which they are only able to measure and monitor for part of their national territories. As improvements in data and data management systems are put in place, countries can update the methods that they use to estimate the forest reference levels, or forest reference emission levels.

http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/durban_nov_2011/decisions/application/pdf/cop17_safeguards.pdf