Climate Action 2010-2011

Redd, Sustainable Forest Management and Agriculture
Slash and burn agriculture in the Amazon.
Izabella Teixeira
Minister of Environment for Brazil
© Creative commons/flickr/Threa to Democracy
Brazilian policy
to address
climate change:
relevant role to
REDD+
Forests are globally important carbon sinks and play
a critical role in mitigating climate change. The
international mechanism for protecting the world’s
forests, Reducing emissions from deforestation and
forest degradation (Redd+), is one of the main
contributions that forest-rich nations such as Brazil
can make to reduce global warming.
REDD+ has been seen as an easy and effective way to
combat climate change. However, the challenge of reducing
the rate of deforestation for many developing countries
is as big as the challenge to change the energy matrix for
developed countries. In order to achieve the emissions
reductions which REDD+ demands, many different actions
have to be taken. It is not a ‘non action’ as cynics have
suggested. Deforestation and forest degradation are results
of common practices which involve many economic sectors
and a sizeable part of the local population. REDD+ actions
depend on many factors, are difficult to implement, all
associated costs are difficult to account for, but they have
the potential to bring many benefits, not only to the planet
but to forest-dwelling communities too.
The wide-ranging role of forests make them
fundamental to our very survival – something that is
well known but not yet reflected fully in current actions
to protect and conserve forest cover. Biodiversity,
hydrological regulation, the livelihoods of forest
communities, supply of timber and non-timber products
and the conservation of carbon stocks are just some
of the multiple benefits or environmental services that
are provided but not accounted for. In this regard, the
REDD+ mechanism, in negotiation under the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),
offers the tropical forests an opportunity to have at least
part of this value acknowledged.
The broad scope of REDD+, encompassing not only
reduction of emissions from deforestation and degradation,
but also conservation and increase of forest carbon stocks
and sustainable forest management, brings many challenges
to the table. It requires that developing countries address
not only the direct causes of deforestation and forest
degradation, but also drivers such as land tenure issues and
poor forest and agriculture governance.
The need to ensure the environmental integrity of
the mechanism means that issues such as leakage,
permanence and additionality have to be addressed.
In this regard, Brazil believes that it is crucial to work
to national reference levels and invest in a robust,
transparent and up-to-date monitoring system. The
national reference level approach has many advantages
because it simplifies accountability, prevents national
leakage and avoids perverse incentives.
A successful REDD+ strategy has to take into account
all stakeholders’ interests. It is essential that we build
mechanisms and institutions capable of dealing fully with
the preferences and interests of all stakeholders, in order to
guarantee the long-term sustainability of all achievements
realised by the implementation of the REDD+ strategy.
A successful REDD+ strategy is also related to the
adequate assessment of the drivers of deforestation in
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