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Session 3: Ensuring REDD+ Complements Restoration, Poverty Alleviation and Adaptation. Jeffrey Hatcher RRI Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change February 8, 2011 London. Outline. Premise Implications of moving from RED to REDD + Forests, people and: Poverty Alleviation
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Session 3:Ensuring REDD+ ComplementsRestoration, Poverty Alleviation and Adaptation Jeffrey Hatcher RRI Dialogue on Forests, Governance and Climate Change February 8, 2011 London
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 usingforests: 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+?