Session 3:Ensuring REDD+ Complements

Restoration, Poverty Alleviation and Adaptation

Jeffrey HatcherRRI Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change

February 8, 2011London

Outline

• Premise• Implications of moving from RED to REDD+• Forests, people and:– Poverty Alleviation – Food Security– Adaptation

• Conditions for success• Questions

Premise

• We face multiple crises (food insecurity, climate, energy, poverty, fragile political systems, continued disenfranchisement of women and minority groups) and we have limited time and money; all contributing to vulnerability to make effective progress on any one of them; we need to prepare for a very uncertain future.

• We need to invest on underlying, cross-cutting initiatives that help address multiple crises – that strengthen rural society and build resilience

Implications of REDD+

• REDD+ has the potential to be a cross-cutting answer• Within the Cancun Agreement REDD+ includes:

enhancement and conservation of stocks and sustainable management of forests.

• Therefore a much larger geographic and therefore demographic scope is implicated– 1.5 billion hectares of degraded forest land = how many people?– 17% target for conservation areas

• REDD+ must therefore complement a host of goals and not just carbon, including:– Poverty alleviation– Food security– Adaptation

Forest Poverty and Livelihoods

• Forests are home to many of the world’s poor and marginalized

• Livelihoods and food security are the concerns of the poor – not carbon; Poverty is more than a lack of money

• Enormous potential to empower and enhance livelihoods exists

Food security

• Food security: millions already rely on the forest for food

• In a climate of volatile food prices, declining yields and changing climates: forests provide a safety net (wild plants and foods)

• Forests and trees provide biodiversity, fertilizers, and protection and enhancement of watersheds

• The “+” opens the door to agroforestry and thinking about the role of agriculture in achieving climate goals

Adaptation

Adaptation of forests and forestry: making forests more resilient– Active, diverse management of landscapes can increase resilience

• Insect infestation in Canada• Forest fires in Russia

– If forests are not resilient communities will bear the burden. But communities also offer a solution, diverse production systems will allow for more stability

Adaptation using forests: making people more resilient– Trees will reduce fragility of soil systems: controlling erosion,

landslides– Adaptation through mitigation

Emerging complementarities

One example, programs to restore degraded lands can increase sequestration capacities, and – Provide livelihood options for the rural poor and sources of food– Help adapt: Reduce vulnerability: landslides– Reduce water shortages; increase drought resistance; increase resistance to

heavy waterfall– Restored forests can provide a source of energy

But the conditions must be right: Lessons from countries that have reversed from Forest Losing Countries to Forest Adding countries (Gregersen and Bailey, forthcoming)– Major policy shifts: Large scale restoration with government support/attitude change– Tenure and governance reforms– Economic development

We need to invest on underlying, cross-cutting initiatives that help address multiple crises – that strengthen rural society and build resilience

Can REDD+ contribute to solving the interconnected crises?

• “To reach scale, increase conservation and chances for resilience to climate, economic, political shocks – need to recognize the rights and unleash the entrepreneurial energies of the 1 billion forest poor”

• Recognition of the management capacities of forest communities

• Adapting requires having a firm leg to stand on: tenure rights provide a base for:– Long term incentives to maintain and enhance environment– Rights to move

• Appreciation of the forest as a source of food security

Questions

• Will REDD+ programs be able to deliver on the complementarities?

• Where are the possibilities for alleviating poverty in REDD+?

• Can we hang our forest adaptation hopes on REDD+?