New report shows landscape of finance for REDD+ and climate action in forests

A new report from Environmental Defense Fund and Forest Trends identifies the sources of funding currently available for REDD+ and climate action in forests, and analyzes the challenges and opportunities for accessing and coordinating this finance. Designed to serve as a resource for negotiators, policymakers, practitioners, NGOs, and others involved with the implementation of REDD+ and climate action in forests, the report aims to contribute to scaling up, coordinating, and allocating funding in a timely, efficient, and effective manner.

The report, “Mapping Forest Finance: A Landscape of Available Sources of Finance for REDD+ and Climate Action in Forests”:

• Describes the sources of finance available for each phase of REDD+ —Readiness (Phase 1), Implementation (Phase 2), and Results-based Finance (Phase 3) – and related climate action in forests by detailing each finance source’s: type, mechanism, eligibility requirements, scale, access process, scope, and challenges.
• Presents information that is both historical and forward looking so as to provide context and inform future decisions when it comes to planning REDD+ implementation and supporting financial strategies combining a diversity of funding sources. The Green Climate Fund, for example, recently announced a pilot program for forest sector results-based payments. Additionally, while not yet an available source of results-based finance, transfer-based payments (TBPs) are a potential source of viable funding for performance based results. Parties in the UNFCCC are currently negotiating internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs) as a part of Article 6.2, which will determine the exact nature of TBPs in relation to REDD+.
• Reveals many challenges with and opportunities for accessing and coordinating finance for REDD+ and climate action in forests at the international and national level. Key challenges identified include minimizing the gap between what is available and what is needed for each REDD+ phase; developing cohesive national visions that can be translated into usable investment plans; allocating funding appropriately according to cross-sectoral and coherent national finance strategies; and aligning requirements and criteria under funding sources for consistency and coherency of requirement processes so to facilitate access and disbursements.
• Highlights challenges specific to forest landscape restoration (FLR), such as the high costs associated with addressing degradation and promoting sustainable management of forest landscapes, when compared to activities for reducing emissions from avoided deforestation. This challenge creates the need for more comprehensive national REDD+ visions that include activities to address the barriers for sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks; and
• Describes the opportunities for both accessing and coordinating finance, which range from exploring viable, complementary sources of market-based REDD+ finance for Phase 3 to redirecting sources of funding for agriculture, for example, to finance REDD+ activities.

The report also reflects how many finance sources are able to fund multiple phases of REDD+, considering that REDD+ phases often overlap and operate simultaneously, as seen in the infographic below which shows the sources of finance and funding mechanisms for the three phases of REDD+. Such a comprehensive landscape of complementary and/or synergistic sources of funding can contribute to defining efficient and coherent financial strategies for REDD+ design and implementation.

The report, produced with support from IUCN as part of ongoing efforts to accelerate action on REDD+ through forest landscape restoration, is timely as the coordination of financial support for REDD+ and climate action in forests will continue to be a top agenda item at the upcoming Bonn intersessional, having featured prominently during COP 23. During the COP, country negotiators – as a continuation of REDD+ focal point meetings held since COP19 – resumed discussions on the coordination of support for the implementation of activities in relation to mitigation actions in the forest sector by developing countries, including institutional and financial arrangements. Negotiators debated the potential need for additional governance arrangements for improving the coordination of support for REDD+ funding and implementation. Additionally, side event and panel participants, country representatives, and others involved with REDD+ and climate action in forests expressed concerns over the availability, sustainability, and coordination of funding for results. Yet, negotiators could not agree on a decision and the co-chairs decided to continue negotiations during the next meetings to be held in May 2018.

The report aims to contribute not only to upcoming UNFCCC conversations pertaining to improving access to and coordination of finance for REDD+ and mitigation actions in the forest sector but, by clarifying the challenges with and opportunities for adequately accessing and coordinating funding for REDD+ and climate action in forests, will also contribute to ensuring that funding is made available and disbursed in a timely, efficient, and effective manner.

View the report at edf.org/mappingforestfinance.