Documents on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation

The objective of the work on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation (and Forest Degradation) in Developing Countries is to assess and evaluate potential positive incentives and policy approaches aiming to contribute to global climate change mitigation.

Financing Mechanisms to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation: Issues in Design and Implementation (December 2007)
by Katia Karousakis and Jan Corfee-Morlot
This paper identifies key features and examines performance issues pertinent to the design and implementation of a fund- or market-based mechanism to RED(D). Four key features relevant to an environmentally-effective and economically-efficient financing mechanism are establishing clear goals and objectives, ensuring sufficient and long-term sources of funding, developing eligibility and prioritisation criteria, ensuring accurate and consistent monitoring and performance evaluation. The paper reviews and assesses the recent proposals for RED(D) financing mechanisms under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to consider how they address these features.

Incentives to Reduce GHG Emissions from Deforestation: Lessons Learned from Costa Rica and Mexico (May 2007)
by Katia Karousakis
A number of options are being proposed for an instrument to reduce GHG emissions from deforestation (RED) in developing countries, including both market and non-market based approaches. This paper focuses on the use of a market-based approach to RED, based on lessons learned and good practices from payments for Environmental Services Programmes in Costa Rica and Mexico as well as other experiences from the climate change framework.

Initial Review of Policies and Incentives to Reduce GHG Emissions from Deforestation (November 2006)
by Katia Karousakis
At COP-11 in Montreal (December 2005), a two-year process was initiated to consider policy approaches and incentive options to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in developing countries. This paper gives a brief overview of deforestation, outlining the economic concepts related to efficient land-use options and providing an introduction to some of the policy approaches and incentive options that are available to reduce emissions from deforestation. These include domestic and international approaches that have been used in the past to capture ‘forest values’ and options that have been suggested to date to capture the ‘carbon values’ associated with forests.