REDD Plus Review #2

A fairly quiet week on the REDD front. Summertime? One of the more significant REDD-related events of the past week was the 2010 Katoomba Meeting XVII, which was held in Hanoi on 23-24 June. The meeting as a whole covered a broad range of topics, including "State of Emerging Environmental Markets," "Forest Carbon and REDD Architecture," "Vietnam Experience", etc. But REDD+ was clearly a major focus of discussion, with approximately 20 video presentations available addressing the topic. Among the not to be missed presentations are:

• Tim Boyle (UN-REDD) presenting the UN-REDD programme, 
• Gary Bull (University of Britishs Columbia) on Governance and Leakage issues in REDD,
• Rene Boot (Tropenboos International) on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade, and
• Tom Clements (Wildlife Conservation Society) on Combining Multiple Payments for Ecosystem Services Markets.  

Meanwhile, the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), the world's largest professional society for  tropical forest study and conservation, has issued a resolution related to the UN definition of forests. The resolution:

• URGES the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) of the United Nations to immediately clarify natural forest definitions on a biome basis (such as ‘cool-temperate’, ‘wet tropical, and ‘peat-swamp forest’) to reflect the wideranging differences in carbon and biodiversity values of these different biomes, while clearly distinguishing between native forests and those dominated by tree monocultures and non-native species; and

• STRONGLY RECOMMENDS that developing and developed nations immediately implement these new forest definitions to ensure that they are incorporated in ongoing and future REDD negotiations.

On the country implementation and readiness side of things, AFP reports that Nepal has recently issued a two-month ban on tree cutting after reports of massive deforestation in its lawless, southern Terai region. Given the area's "deteriorating" security situation, however, it's unclear how effective the ban might be. And Nigeria, with support from UNDP, has apparently begun work on development of a REDD readiness plan.

Finally, UN-REDD has published its latest newsletter, including a report on a UN-REDD side event at UNFCCC Climate Change talks at Bonn focused on developments in MRV and monitoring of mitigation actions and safeguards for REDD+.

Quick tip: Follow REDD happenings on Twitter, using the #redd hashmark: http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23redd