Deforestation, land-use change and REDD

Unasylva 230, Vol. 59, 2008 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fourth assessment report (IPCC, 2007) estimated that the forest sector contributes 17.4 percent of all greenhouse gases from anthropogenic sources; most of this is due to deforestation and forest degradation. The Stern Review on the economics of climate change (Stern, 2007), furthermore, observed that “curbing deforestation is a highly cost-effective way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions”. Based on such scientific evidence, the thirteenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP-13), held in Bali, Indonesia in December 2007, addressed the role of forests in climate change (UNFCCC, 2007). The Bali Action Plan, which outlines long-term cooperative action up to 2012 and beyond, calls for enhanced national and international action including: “Policy approaches and positive incentives on issues relating to reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries; and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries”. The Parties adopted a decision specific to the challenge, “Reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries: approaches to stimulate action”, which encourages Parties to address the drivers of deforestation relevant to their national circumstances. Thus, negotiations of a future protocol to limit emissions and stabilize atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) are likely Deforestation, land-use change and REDD