Getting ready for REDD+ in Tanzania: a case study of progress and challenges
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Date
2010
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Fauna & Flora International
Abstract
The proposed mechanism for Reducing Emis-
sions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) offers
significant potential for conserving forests to reduce
negative impacts of climate change. Tanzania is one of
nine pilot countries for the United Nations REDD Pro-
gramme, receives significant funding from the Norwegian,
Finnish and German governments and is a participant in
the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility. In
combination, these interventions aim to mitigate green-house gas emissions, provide an income to rural commu-
nities and conserve biodiversity. The establishment of the
UN-REDD Programme in Tanzania illustrates real-world
challenges in a developing country. These include currently
inadequate baseline forestry data sets (needed to calculate
reference emission levels), inadequate government capacity
and insufficient experience of implementing REDD+-type
measures at operational levels. Additionally, for REDD+ to
succeed, current users of forest resources must adopt new
practices, including the equitable sharing of benefits that
accrue from REDD+ implementation. These challenges
are being addressed by combined donor support to im-
plement a national forest inventory, remote sensing of
forest cover, enhanced capacity for measuring, reporting
and verification, and pilot projects to test REDD+ imple-
mentation linked to the existing Participatory Forest Man-
agement Programme. Our conclusion is that even in a
country with considerable donor support, progressive forest
policies, laws and regulations, an extensive network of
managed forests and increasingly developed locally-based
forest management approaches, implementing REDD+ pre-
sents many challenges. These are being met by coordinated,
genuine partnerships between government, non-government
and community-based agencies.
Description
Keywords
Carbon, Copenhagen, CoP 15, REDD+, Tanzania, UNFCCC, Forests, Green- house gas