Linking forests and food production in the REDD+ context

Governments implementing REDD+ programmes must address agriculture, which is the primary driver of global forest clearing, to reach REDD+ carbon emission mitigation targets. Current REDD+ readiness activities illustrate there are serious obstacles to creating meaningful cross-sector links able to alter strong economic forces and existing government targets and mandates

Climate adaptation and agriculture: Solutions to successful national adaptation plans

The purpose of this brief is to share insights on agriculture and NAPs with national-level decision makers in developing countries and Least Developed Countries (LDCs), multilateral agencies, UNFCCC negotiators and donors. This brief explores how countries are overcoming the biggest challenges in developing NAPs, outlines examples of successful cross-sector adaptation planning, explores influence and leverage necessary for successful NAP processes, and offers specific recommendations

Policy responses to direct and underlying drivers of deforestation: Examining rubber and coffee in the central highlands of Vietnam

Viet Nam's Central Highlands are a priority region for its National REDD+ Action Plan (NRAP) to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation but are under strong pressures from rubber and coffee production and expansion into forests, and future climate stress. This research explores to what extent REDD+ and sectoral policy interventions have addressed both the direct and underlying drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in this region, with particular focus on the actors and scales that policy interventions must reach to affect driver pressure. National-level policy responses to driver pressures are assessed, with the results indicating poor correlations between the direct drivers and related underlying drivers. The research proposes a framework to guide the policy design and evaluation of response options to enable identification of the causal connections between direct and underlying drivers, and consider future pressures, which actors to target (or not miss) and which scales are best suited for interventions (from international to national, sub-national and local). This is highly relevant for countries pursuing forest and land use sector solutions through Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement and REDD+.</p

Corporate social responsibility and supply agreements in the private sector: Decreasing land and climate pressures

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and supply agreements in the agricultural sector have a significant role to play to promote agricultural climate change mitigation and decrease pressure on the earth’s land and climate. Private sector engagement can also promote food security and positively affect the livelihoods of smallholder agricultural producers in developing countries. Based on a comprehensive literature survey and 15 interviews with key organizations, companies and financiers or lenders, this report investigates: current private sector climate change mitigation activities in agriculture and food production, highlighting current innovations affecting production and supply chains of key commodities; explores how CSR and supply chain commitments can improve their contribution to reductions in agricultural GHG emissions; and surveys the role of governments, finance and investment in promoting sustainability in the agricultural sector. Key findings identify a strong need for harmonization among product standards, certification and by commodity roundtables, and the need to mainstream sustainability criteria in agricultural finance and lending activities

Policy integration as a means to address policy fragmentation : Assessing the role of Vietnam’s national REDD+ action plan in the central highlands

The Vietnamese National REDD + Action Plan (NRAP) seeks to reduce emissions from forest clearing and land use, especially from the main drivers of coffee and rubber commodity expansion. Achieving the NRAP goals, however, means negotiating a complex and fragmented forest policy arena, with conflicting sector goals, disconnects between global and local ambition and action, and imbalanced power dynamics between actors. We map the fragmentation of this policy arena and explore the extent to which the NRAP is able to integrate policy responses to drivers to achieve emissions reductions. We examine what the NRAP sought to integrate, what was not taken into account, what is integrated at which scale, and which actors are part of integration (or not) across the policy process components. We conclude that if policy integration does not affect a ?whole of government? shift in priorities or change in mandate among driver sectors, fragmented policy arenas will persist and forest based climate mitigation objectives will not be achieved.Peer reviewe

Payments for ecosystem services schemes: project-level insights on benefits for ecosystems and the rural poor

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) provide a market-based instrument to motivate changes in land use that degrade ecosystem services. This investigation sought to better understand how effective PES schemes are in meeting the goals of safeguarding ecosystem services, while also benefitting local livelihoods and ensuring pro-poor outcomes. Based on an internet survey of 36 PES projects, including water- biodiversity- and carbon-leading attributes, and analysis of a sub-set of nine case studies, we explore a range of insights and commonalities between projects. Findings indicate that in most cases non-financial benefits in the short-term lead to longer-term financial benefits for landholders, most often as yield increases, future harvest revenue, and access to markets for products. Many projects are not quantifying the full range of ES benefits they are providing. However, full compensation for these benefits is not necessary to safeguard the environmental services. Market mechanisms are an imperfect means of pricing the value of ecosystem services, particularly when enabling policies do not exist or are not consistent (e.g. policies committing to greenhouse gas emission reductions). While national-level PES schemes (e.g. REDD+) share many similarities with project-scale PES schemes, they fundamentally differ in their ability to deploy a full suite of incentives, policies, and regulatory interventions in order to meet their domestic programme goals, thus addressing equity and efficiency needs

Sustainable Food Security in the Era of Local and Global Environmental Change

XXXIX, 338 p. 57 illus., 41 illus. in color.onlin

Climate financing needs in the land sector under the Paris Agreement: An assessment of developing country perspectives

This paper explores the potential of climate finance to support developing country efforts to shift away from unsustainable land use patterns in the context of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. We pursue two research objectives here. Through a meta-analysis of 40 developing country Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), we provide, first, a comprehensive qualitative overview of developing country perspectives on climate financing needs for mitigation and adaptation activities in the land use, land-use change and forestry sectors (LULUCF).Second, we examine whether countries acknowledge a role for domestic financing and international and domestic fiscal policy reform within these NDCs, as a way to address drivers of land use conversion. We supplement our meta-analysis of NDCs with a brief assessment of climate financing in two forest-rich countries, Brazil and Indonesia. Our analysis of NDCs reveals that only 14 of the 40 countries provide clear cost estimates for proposed climate-related forest activities, with most activities being conditional on provision of international climate finance. While some discuss domestic sources, few note the need for (international or national) fiscal policy reform to counteract direct and underlying drivers of land use conversion. The challenges inherent in doing so are also highlighted in our discussion of Brazil and Indonesia. Our findings suggest that, while much attention is directed to inadequate quantities of international climate finance, a lack of fiscal reform remains a key hurdle to realizing transformative change in the land use sector

Planning climate adaptation in agriculture

This meta-synthesis of national climate change adaptation plans, policies and processes spans twelve countries at various stages of adaptation planning and implementation, in three priority CCAFS regions: West Africa (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Sénegal), East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) and South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Nepal). The national adaptation plan (NAP) process was established in the Cancún Adaptation Framework by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to help facilitate effective medium- and long-term adaptation planning and implementation in developing countries, and in particular Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The scope of this review focused primarily on climate adaptation in the agriculture sector, but also included consideration of related sectors, such as water, forests and land use

The Sustainable Development Goals and REDD+ : assessing institutional interactions and the pursuit of synergies

This paper analyzes potential synergies between two recent sustainable development initiatives, namely the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), a climate mitigation mechanism negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The paper elaborates a conceptual framework based on institutional interactions and distinguishes core, complementary, and supplementary synergies that may be realized between the SDGs and REDD+. Potential synergies are analyzed at the global level, as well as within two national-level contexts: Indonesia, with its long-standing REDD+ programme, and Myanmar, which is in the early stages of implementing REDD+. Both are now also engaging nationally with the SDG implementation process. Our research draws on literature review and document analysis, direct observations of global policy processes relating to REDD+ and SDGs, as well as extensive engagement (of one author) at national level in Indonesia and Myanmar. Our analysis reveals that there are currently significant opportunities to pursue synergies in the implementation of these international initiatives at the national level, although pro-active interaction management is necessary, especially to achieve complementary synergies