REDD+

FTA work on climate change has contributed significantly to the agenda at subnational, national and international levels, and has built on work started in 2011 at the onset of FTA Phase 1.

FTA developed a stepwise approach as a capacity-building framework to allow all countries to join REDD+ at their own level of ability. The approach comprises nine key aspects and four knowledge areas, combined in three gradual steps which increase in the quality of detail.

FTA scientists contributed to international expert consultations that led to a decision by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban, 2011, to adopt the stepwise approach to setting forest and emission reference levels (UNFCC Decision 12/CP17); this was reaffirmed at COP19 in Warsaw in 2013 (Decision 13/CP.19).

FTA partners were directly involved in writing up the Indonesian National REDD+ strategy. FTA scientists provided new peatland emission factors, informing the Government of Indonesia’s decisions on its forest moratorium and in defining its forest reference emission levels (FRELs). The Indonesian Ministry for National Development Planning mandated the use of the LUWES/LUMENS framework in all provinces (currently in use in 30 out of the 33 provinces) for land-use planning for low-emissions development.

The main attributes that allowed FTA to play this role include the fact that FTA partners are seen as belonging to respected research organizations; and that its senior/principal scientists are experts on climate change issues and have in-depth knowledge of policy processes. These factors were key to influencing national REDD+ policies in Indonesia. FTA has followed up with the development of the Indonesian National Carbon Accounting System (INCAS), officially launched at the 2015 Global Landscapes Forum in Paris. An independent review by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) of FTA’s work on REDD+ is documenting in detail several of these outcomes and other stories of change.