Regional highlights of R-PINs

Asia Region

FCPF Steering Committee MeetingParis, July 9 and 10, 2008

By FCPF Technical Advisory Panel

Forest Carbon Partnership Facility

Asian Countries

4 countries from Asia submitted their R-PINs before May 30 (complete, in English, using latest template)

All of them are considered in the SC meeting: Lao Nepal Vietnam Vanuatu

Key Observations

Key Observations Forest deforestation and degradation is an important issue in every

country

DD is low in Vanuatu but maintaining the low level is a key issue

Ownership of proposals and government interest is high in every country

Monitoring Systems:

Inventory quality is adequate for land area estimation, but lacks biomass

and carbon estimates

REDD Strategy:

Indigenous and community based approaches are a key element in

proposed strategies

REDD Infrastructure:

National implementation capacity needs to be strengthened for REDD

implementation

Effectiveness of REDD Strategy:

Strategies are unique to circumstances in each country

Most countries recognize need for better governance and forest

management, and have proposed building blocks for a sound strategy

International and national displacement (leakage) of emissions remains

an important issue.

Monitoring Systems and

Reference Scenarios

Monitoring Systems and Reference Scenario

Lao and Vietnam have had periodic forest cover

inventories

Demonstrate the importance of including forest

degradation in the monitoring system

Gross deforestation was highest during the recent years

Need a combination of historic and modeled future

scenarios to develop reference scenario

Vanuatu proposes to consider modeling as a basis

for building reference scenario

Nepal has an uneven history on monitoring but

includes biodiversity measurements in its

monitoring system

REDD Strategy

REDD Strategy Each of the four countries is committed to develop and

implement a biomass and carbon measurement system

as part of the REDD strategy

Vietnam and Lao

Have very detailed analysis of the drivers of deforestation

and strategies in place.

High political commitment to tackle DD, but effective forest

law remains main challenge

Lao recently committed to a more effective law enforcement

system

In Nepal, local community management has successfully

retarded DD. Institutional setup and experience from this

strategy will be a valuable input to the REDD strategy

In Vanuatu, all forests are owned by indigenous

communities. REDD strategy will thus include this aspect.

REDD infrastructure

for implementing

REDD activities

REDD infrastructure for implementing REDD activities

Vietnam and Nepal proposes to install and/or

strengthen village, district, and national level groups on

REDD. Each has some experience with Payment for

Environmental Services (PES) and direct payment

schemes

Vanuatu proposes to launch the Vanuatu Carbon Credit

Project providing the framework for assessing carbon

markets that goes beyond REDD

Lao proposes a sector-based approach, working with

industry associations, and provision of financial

incentives to local deforesters to arrest DD.

Potential effectiveness of

proposed REDD

strategies

Potential effectiveness of

proposed REDD strategies

Each country has its own unique strategy for achieving

success, but all require capacity to be developed

In Lao and Vietnam, success will depend on alternative

economic opportunities for communities, and reducing forest

products demand and illegal logging; and how to deal with

degradation

Nepal’s strategy of working explicitly with indigenous

communities has a proven basis for success in the hilly

areas, but will require its effective transfer to other zones