Save The Rainforest, Inc.

REDD 101
The basics of a mechanism that---if successfully implemented---will help save rainforests, improve the lives of hundreds of millions of forest dependent people and jump-start climate change mitigation

REDD is a mechanism that was looked upon favorably by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December, 2009. It is expected REDD will be officially written into an international climate change agreement in 2010. REDD is an acronym for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in Developing countries

REDD will compensate tropical countries for protecting their forests, thereby reducing the carbon emissions that result from deforestation. Deforestation in the tropics is responsible for 17% of our carbon emissions.

Negotiators in Copenhagen could not agree on much, but they did agree that halting deforestation in the tropics was “low hanging fruit”--- a relatively easy and fast way to start mitigating climate change.

To be successful, REDD must be implemented in all tropical forest countries. If it is not, deforestation from logging, agriculture, mining, etc., will simply leak into the countries that lack incentives for protecting forests.

To calculate by how much a tropical country is reducing its deforestation rate, REDD will rely on ground verification and satellite imaging. Ground verification systems are already established, and improved satellite imagery/processing can now accurately measure deforestation real-time.

Some of the funds tropical countries will receive for reducing their deforestation rates will go into a trust account. If a country backslides, and starts cutting down its forests after receiving REDD funds, it will forfeit the funds in the trust account. This addresses the issue of permanence.

Indigenous people, local forest communities, forest industries, etc. all have a stake in forests. It is essential that a fair and transparent distribution of REDD funds is made to all these stakeholders for the contributions they make to protecting forests.

The monies for REDD will come from a combination of foreign aid programs, private donations and funds generated by a price put on carbon emissions (a carbon tax or a cap and trade system that allows polluters to offset some of their emissions by paying into a carbon market). Another source of income may come from a fee assessed on air travel, which has a large carbon footprint.

Monies to compensate countries for reducing their deforestation rates will start flowing in 2013. In the meantime, tropical countries are consulting with forest stakeholders, identifying strategies for reducing deforestation and building up their capacity to monitor forest cover within their borders and distribute funds to stakeholders.

REDD Curriculum   |  REDD Fact Sheet