Media Advisory

REDD and Development: Ensuring the Integrity of Greenhouse Gas Reductions and Development Benefits

Friday, December 11, 2009, 3:30-5:00 P.M. CET (GMT+1)
Koncerthuset (The Concert House), DR Byen (Two Metro stops from the Bella Centre)
UNFCCC COP15, Copenhagen

Agreement on an international framework to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD) is expected to be one of the main outcomes of the Copenhagen climate talks. IISD reports on its REDD capacity building workshops, held in Nairobi and Hanoi in November 2009. IISD delivered the workshops in cooperation with the Alternatives to Slash and Burn Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins, World Agroforestry Centre (ASB-ICRAF), with the support of the Government of Norway. (see IISD's work on land-use management).

In many poor countries, the delivery of development benefits will depend on the inclusion of emissions from agriculture and other land uses. One of the key questions is therefore how the scope of REDD can be expanded to include emissions from such land uses. Panelists will discuss how REDD should be structured to ensure there will be development benefits, without jeopardizing the integrity of greenhouse gas reductions.

The panel is organized jointly by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), in collaboration with the ASB-ICRAF and the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

Moderated by IISD's John Drexhage. Speakers:

• Dr. Dennis Garrity, Director General, ICRAF
• Ms. Maryanne Grieg-Gran, Programme Director, Environmental Economics, IIED
• Ms. Pham Minh Thoa, Deputy Director General, Department of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development , Vietnam
• Dr. George Wamukoya, Climate Advisor, Common Market for East and Southern Africa

 Speakers will address, among other issues:

• Requirements for monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of REDD that ensure the integrity of greenhouse gas emissions while encouraging developing country participation and guaranteeing development benefits
• Options to include agriculture in REDD
• Coherence between REDD and agricultural development and linkages with adaptation strategies
• The potential of Agroforestry as high carbon land use
• Country and regional perspectives from Vietnam and Africa  

For more information, please contact IISD media and communication officer, Nona Pelletier
Phone: +1-(204)-958-7740, Cell: +1-(204)-962-1303.
(For local calls during COP15 in Copenhagen, please phone 53 976 123 until December 18, 2009)