Community forestry offers a tried and true model for approaching national Safeguard Information Systems (SIS) under REDD+. RECOFTC agrees with the global consensus that REDD+ SIS should be based upon existing, equitable and participatory systems.

The 19th Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held in Warsaw, Poland, 11–22 November 2013. The outcomes of COP 19 are expected to have a significant impact on developments in the field of forests and climate change over the coming year. In view of this, forest sector stakeholders in the Asia-Pacific region require succinct and accurate information on the implications of COP 19 discussions and their significance to forest policy decisions and practice.

This brief, produced jointly by FAO, UNEP and RECOFTC, outlines the ways in which forests contribute to climate change adaptation in the Asian region. It details current climate changes impacting forest ecosystems in Asia; key components of climate change adaptation and sustainable forest management; the current status of climate change adaptation and forests in Asia; and the way ahead.

Overview:

Over 200 participants including 134 international delegates from 20 countries convened on 8–9 August 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand, for two days of deliberations on the potential of community forestry to address some of the biggest challenges we face today. Be it persistent rural poverty, climate change, governance, deforestation, or rights of indigenous and local people, there were questions raised and solutions offered in several packed sessions ending in a Vision 2020 exercise and a Call for Action at the close of the Forum.

Under present and foreseeable economic and social trends in the Asia-Pacific region, can we achieve sustainable forest management and better realize the potential of forests and forestry to contribute to improved human well-being? 

The Community Carbon Accounting (CCA) Action Research Project was launched with the intention of elaborating approaches for engaging communities in forest carbon stock monitoring.

The training manual on improving grassroots equity in the forests and climate change context, aims to develop the knowledge and capacity needed among grassroots facilitators to implement genuinely participatory processes for improving grassroots equity in forest-based climate change policy frameworks, mechanisms and initiatives.

Equity has featured prominently in international climate change discourse since the establishment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992. Looking forward, equity is expected to be of even greater relevance in this year’s hoped for landmark climate agreement, to be finalized at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) remains central in global conversations at the intersection of forest and climate change policy.

In this context, RECOFTC and USAID Adapt Asia-Pacific have developed a framework for better understanding and assessing climate change vulnerabilities in a context of multiple competing interests in a CF landscape. The pilot site for developing this approach was a women-led Community Forestry User Group (CFUG) in the Terai of Nepal; the Bishnupur community forest. The context in Bishnupur reflects challenges associated with the ecologically fragile Chure Forest, but also one of growing opportunities for economic development due to the close proximity of the Indian border.

PES is a new concept gaining momentum in the Asia-Pacific region. But what are the enabling conditions for employing PES schemes, and how can they be made pro-poor? Payment for Environmental Services (PES) sets up systems where beneficiaries of environmental services reward the providers of such services with payments or other non-financial goods (market access, land security, public services, infrastructure, capacity building).

Many  countries  in  the  region  are  developing  or  revising  their  national climate chage adaptation strategies and it is critical that forest use by communities be considered and included within these plans. At the same time, mitigation activities  such  as  REDD+  have  rarely  explicitly  considered  adaptation or  the  need  to  develop  adaptive  capacity  (FAO,  2012). This  means  that valuable  opportunities  are  being  missed  to  ‘couple  up’  activities  with a goal to achieving results in both areas.

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, as well as conservation and enhancement of forest carbon stocks and promoting sustainable management of forests in developing countries (REDD+) has been proposed as an effective mechanism to mitigate the impacts of climate change.