Gaia in cooperation with Creatura has been assigned to evaluate the progress made by the Norway–Indonesia REDD+ Partnership in laying the institutional and legal groundwork for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation of natural forests and peat lands in the most species-rich country on Earth.
The verification team will consult with numerous Indonesian and international stakeholders, assess and verify the results of the first phase of the Partnership, and report to the Indonesian and Norwegian governments.
In September 2009, the President of Indonesia committed his country to a new, lower-carbon future, while recognising that Indonesia would need to greatly reduce the rate of damage to its forests and peatlands in order to meet its emission reduction targets. Norway offered to support these efforts through its International Climate and Forest Initiative, and in May 2010 the two countries entered into a formal partnership for this purpose. For its part, Norway committed one billion USD over the next few years to facilitate and reward reforms, while the Indonesian side agreed to undertake transformative change in how the nation’s forests are used.
“The Indonesia–Norway Partnership for REDD+ is one of the most significant climate initiatives of our times. It includes innovative and demanding measures to plan, administer, execute as well as to monitor and verify actions to reduce emissions and to establish ways to demonstrate environmentally sustainable land use”, says Pasi Rinne, Chairman of Gaia Group.
The REDD+ partnership has international significance, and Gaia’s ongoing evaluation of its results will be observed with interest by many stakeholders. “The Partnership is developing policies, tools and definitions that will help many other REDD programmes and support the global REDD+ mechanism adopted in Cancun in December 2010. While we are excited about the timeliness of the assignment we are also humbled by the complexity of this project”, says Julian Caldecott, Director of Creatura and leader of the evaluation team.
The Gaia–Creatura verification assignment is another demonstration of Gaia’s commitment to support an intelligent approach to development aid. It is consistent with how Gaia works with public and private institutions to improve the quality and impact of development cooperation, especially by mainstreaming climate mitigation and adaptation measures, conducting climate risk assessments and designing policies and tools for effective and sustainable aid programmes.
For further information:
- Pasi Rinne, Chairman of the Board, Gaia Group, tel. +41 79 472 6909, firstname.surname@gaia.fi
- Julian Caldecott, Director, Creatura, tel. +44 (0) 1225 422 257, firstname@creatura.com
Notes for editors:
Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is an effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests, offering incentives for developing countries to reduce emissions from forested lands and invest in low-carbon paths to sustainable development. “REDD+” goes beyond deforestation and forest degradation, and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. More information on REDD: www.un-redd.org
