09 October 2012
IIASA at REDD workshops: Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation
IIASA’s REDD Policy Assessment Center (REDD-PAC) Project uses land-use modeling to help identify which policies are economically efficient, socially fair, and beneficial for biodiversity and other ecosystem values.
Last week, ESM researchers Géraldine Bocquého and Aline Mosnier participated in a REDD-PAC workshop in the Congo Basin, a follow-up on the official kick-off meeting organized in Brazil in May 2012. During the workshop, a strategy was developed to improve project ownership at the country level. Second, four pilot countries were chosen for the high-resolution modelling work: Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Congo, Central African Republic and Cameroon. For more information, see the event page: REDD-PAC Workshop in the Congo Basin.
On 10 October, IIASA’s Florian Kraxner presented the REDD-Pac project at a side event organized by project partner, UK-based United Nations Environment Program – World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), at COP 11 UN-CBD in Hyderabad, India. Kraxner gave a speech on the link between REDD and Ecosystems Services with special focus on biodiversity. For more information see the event page: Linking REDD+ Implementation with the CBD Aichi Biodiversity Targets.
On 1 and 2 October, Mosnier and Bocquého participated in a modeling workshop organized by the National REDD Coordination (CN-REDD) of DRC. They met a large panel of experts on forestry and agriculture who helped to validate the data already available in GLOBIOM for DRC and provided new data. ESM researchers also contributed to highlight to Congolese policy makers and experts the value of modeling tools for policy planning.
About REDD+ and REDD-PAC
Forests around the world play an important role in taking up greenhouse gases like CO2 and storing them in trees, vegetation, and soil. When forests are cut or burned, the carbon they store is released to the atmosphere, and they also stop taking up new carbon. The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation plus forest conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+) is part of the activities discussed by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to mitigate climate change by preserving forests. For more on IIASA’s REDD-PAC research, see the REDD-PAC project page.
