Colombia Forests

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)

Forest degradation in Colombia represents a percentage much higher than the world’s average. Due to deforestation and land use, Colombia’s greenhouse gas emissions account for 46% of emissions nationally, and 52% in Latin America. It has been determined that 75% of the loss of forests is associated with agriculture and colonization. Other factors include livestock and agricultural land expansion, the colonization and/or displacement of populations, mining, illicit crops, the extraction of timber for selling and consumption, and forest fires as the direct causes of deforestation. The 947million hectares of forests in Colombia are home to a vast cultural and biological diversity.

Colombia has decided to implement Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, REDD+ strategy, which also includes the role of conservation, sustainable maintenance of forests, and the improvement of forest carbon reserves.

Three phases are recommended for the REDD+ strategy, which recognize the need for the capacity building, consultation, inclusion and respect for the communities in affected regions, such as indigenous and Afrocolombian groups, throughout the creation of the document for preparation (R-PP) and the implementation of the strategy.

Colombia is currently in the process of preparing the first version of the Readiness Preparation Plan (Marked in red on Timeline), or R-PP, which is the document created to plan the country’s preparation for the REDD strategy.

timeline

Photo: BIC

REDD Process

civil society

Groups representing indigenous and Afrocolombian peoples expressed their expectations for the REDD+ strategy process, during the first workshop held about climate change, financing mechanisms for reducing emissions and the role of the communities, called “Primer Taller de Cambio Climático, mecanismos financieros para la reducción de emisiones y papel de las comunidades” (PDF, 2.1MB) (First Workshop on Climate Change, Financial Mechanisms for Reducing Emissions, and the Role of the Communities), organized by ILSA, which which took place in Bogota, from the 22nd to 25th of February, 2011. They have demanded that their opinion, knowledge, and rights be respected and protected.

REDD+ strategy

REDD is a program through which the World Bank helps nations reduce greenhouse gas emissions by preventing and monitoring deforestation and degradation. However, the program is not supposed to solve the issue by itself; therefore one of its main goals is to strengthen institutions and find/provide alternatives for those who drive deforestation so that the country can independently maintain an effective system to reduce emissions.

Social and Environmental Safeguards

The social and environmental safeguards framework is central for REDD. The system to monitor how these issues are managed is based on the following:

1. Respect for the knowledge of the local ethnic communities meeting the country’s international obligations such as the ILO Convention 169, especially collective property rights that are also protected under the Colombian constitutional framework.
2. Ensure the full and effective participation of all actors
3. Be consistent with the country’s needs for adaptation
4. Be consistent with the environmental integrity objective and to take into account the different functions of forests and other ecosystems in each country. A strategy/plan should be build within the efforts of reducing poverty.
   The agreements established in Cancun 2010 serve as a framework for the REDD+ mechanism at a national level, that is not obligatory, but in participating, the country becomes subject to the commitment of meeting its goals.

Three phases are recommended for the REDD mechanism, which are:

Phase 1: To develop strategies/plans to identify the necessary policies or measures for the country, by building the capacity of at least 90% of the actors with all the necessary information, so that they can participate in decision-making and implementing strategy, in order to be efficient.

For this phase, it is necessary to construct the Readiness Preparation Plan (RPP) which is a document that will explain how Colombia will prepare to implement the REDD strategy. This is an optimal stage for the affected communities to influence. The first version of this document is currently being constructed and will be reviewed this June by the Participant Committee of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) which is a reference scenario to determine the goal of the reduction (For more detail, please refer to next section).

Phase 2: Implementation of a strategy/plan, with the respective national policies and measures, with a process of technology transfer to the country, overcoming the fallacies of the design phase and the support needed in technology and activities for demonstration based on results, without which it would not be possible to have a proper system to monitor deforestation.

Phase 3: Actions based on measurable, reportable, and verifiable results in which the country would demonstrate that it is reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and through which it would receive financial support through a mechanism that is yet to be defined and based on Cancun 2010. Whether these will be Colombian, developed-country, or carbon market funds, it still under discussion. The source of the funds is clear, however, as it is required that developed countries support developing nations in these three phases, which does not mean interfering with country decisions, and that the implementation will be carried out according to the national circumstances.

R-PP

The R-PP is the plan of how the following will be achieved:

1) Strengthening capacity, which promises to include various actors of civil society, including indigenous peoples, such as COICA, PCN, OPIAC, and which will have information and a common language in order to know which are the advantages and disadvantages of the processes

2) Building a REDD+ route that will include all ideas, opinions, interest, and inputs of all of the country’s regions (which have been divided into Amazon, Pacific, Caribbean, Andean, and Orinoquia)

The RPP has six components: 1) organization and consultation, 2) preparing a REDD+ strategy, 3) establishing the reference levels, 4) the structure or design of the monitoring system, 5) elaborate a schedule and a budget, and 6) designing a framework for the entire program.

When this document is approved by the FCPF, the World Bank will grant $3.6 million to implement REDD. That is why it is so important that the document reflect the needs and inputs of all stakeholders.

Until now, the first component has been the most debated during the development of RPPs in other countries.

Some advances have been made in these components, as well as the identification of the requirements to complete them.

Component 1A: Institutionalism – CNA and CTI proposals have been submitted; still need the technical rules for the selection of projects and to determine how the communities will be included

Component 1B: Consultations – Mesa REDD has been created and there have been advances in strengthening capabilities; still need to articulate and develop a consultation and participation process, as well as more capacity building and (probably) publications

Component 2A: Policies and governance – A revision has been made to ECOVERSA-CAN; still missing data from other sectors such as growth projections, as well as a consulting process

Components 2B and 2C: REDD Strategy – The guidelines have been established according to UNFCCC, and there have been advances on the strategy; still need to develop the details of the strategy that address the differences between the regions

Component 2D: Impacts to the Strategy – there is still no progress; still need a SESA (Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment), and consulting on the issue

Component 3: Reference Scenario – almost complete; still need to figure out how to harmonize the different issues of financing by different donors

Component 4: Monitoring System – the system to monitor greenhouse gases (GHG) is almost complete; still need the system to monitor co-benefits

Component 5: Schedule and Budget – there is still no progress; need to identify the specific activities and how to identify financiers

Component 6: Monitoring of the project – there is still no progress; need to develop the management indicators and a system of disclosure

common approach

Members of the Task Force sent their recommendations on Environmental and Social safeguards for the REDD+ Strategy to the Participants Committee on June 9th, 2011, which they hoped would be approved during the PC9 meeting, and adopted as a common approach to the implementation of REDD by all delivery partners. The TF worked intensively for seven months to develop a consensus on the contents of the Common Approach, to decide on the Environmental and Social Safeguards for the implementation of REDD+ in the Pilot Countries by the Multiple Delivery Partners.

First, they focused on developing a common approach that was workable for the two DPs selected by the Pilot Countries. Representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme have been actively and extensively engaged in all aspects of the TF deliberations. The Asian Development Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization also provided background information ontheir safeguard policies and procedures. Also, the information on the current safeguard policies and procedures of both DPs was gathered and compared with the info provided by CSOs during a consultation to ensure that the safeguards were being implemented to their fullest extent. This information was all used as background information when comparing the DP safeguards to those of the World Bank, utilizing the Bank's Operational Policies for identifying "gaps" between the two sets of safeguards.

The TF believes that the safeguards that they developed for the two DPs can be applied to all six DPs. Therefore, they have recommended to the Participants Committee a process for determining whether a potential DP can serve as a DP.

Common Approach

Task Force Conveyance Memo to PC9

guidelines on stakeholder engagement

The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and the UN-REDD Programme presented a draft of the a set of guidelines for stakeholders engaged in REDD+ Readiness. They discuss the key elements of effective stakeholder engagement with an emphasis on the participation of indigenous peoples and other forest-dependent communities. The document discusses three main elements: 1) principles for effective participation and consultation, 2) operational guidelines, and 3) practical how to guidance on planning and implementing consultations. Furthermore, these guidelines also reiterate the purposes and values of the REDD+ program and acknowledges the risks of the program if it is not handled properly.

Guidelines for Stakeholder Engagement in REDD Readiness, (PDF, 776KB)

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