Reducing Emissions from Deforestaton and Forest Degradation (REDD+) – What is Behind the Idea and What is the Role of UN-REDD and Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF)?

Background and purpose: Although greenhouse gases related with the Land Use, Land Use Changes and the Forestry (LULUCF) represent approximately 15-20% of all greenhouse gases emissions to the atmosphere, afforestation/reforestation projects of Kyoto protocol related Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) represents only 0.75% of all CDM projects. All these facts prompted re-negotiation of climate change policy to include Reducing Emissions of Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) in compliance carbon trading in the Post-Kyoto protocol. To help implementing the REDD+ in developing countries, two main multilateral readiness programs were established, the UN one (UN-REDD+), and the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), which was created by the World Bank. This paper describes the main idea behind REDD+ mechanism, the roles of UN-REDD and FCPF in creating REDD+ national policies and what are the challenges and main obstacles in successful implementation of REDD+. Material and methods: Review of the existing literature like reports and publications related to REDD+ in general, as well as related with UN-REDD and FCPF roles in REDD+ implementation in sub- national, national and supra-national policies. Discussion and conclusion: For successful implementation of REDD+ it is necessary to deal with the problems of governance (weak institution, corruption, lack of transparency and participation) that are common present in most of the tropical countries involved in REDD+. The implementation of an effective REDD+ mechanism will need an improved capacity building and law enforcement. The analysis of UN-REDD and FCPF program reveals large overlapping, especially in current phase of capacity building. At present, it seems that UN-REDD maintains a more social oriented approach, while FCPF focuses more on carbon sequestration projects