Getting ready for Oslo

Substantive preparations for next month's Oslo Forest and Climate Conference shifted into high gear yesterday with the release of a draft "REDD+ Partnership" document. The document was prepared over the last several weeks by a "core group" numbering 30 "facilitating countries." It's described as "not a consensus document from the core group", but rather as reflecting "the middle ground and areas of broad convergence on the objectives, contributions, principles and organization of the Partnership."

Clearly, therefore, there is additional work to be done in the period up to and including the Oslo Conference to achieve consensus, not only among the core group, but among all prospective members of the Partnership.  Nevertheless, the draft document provides important insights into the nature of the interim institutional architecture for REDD+ likely to emerge from Oslo.

The document attempts early on to define the Partnership's relationship to the broader, UNFCCC negotiating process, noting that it "will not prejudge but support and contribute to the...process." It goes on to emphasise that "The Partnership would be replaced or subsumed by a future UNFCCC mechanism including REDD+." Notice the use of the conditional form "would,' rather than "will" -- understandable given that it is unclear when or even if such a mechanism will emerge from the UNFCCC negotiations. The draft thus highlights the fact that the Partnership, like the Copenhagen Accord, would enable a process to move forward absent the need for consensus among the broadest range of countries. Until the UNFCCC reaches an overall global agreement, the Partnership would allow REDD to maintain momentum through implementation by a coalition of willing members, i.e., the partners.

Next up is the Partnership's draft objective, which is presented as follows:

to serve as an interim platform for the Partners to scale up REDD+ actions and finance, and to that end to take immediate action, including improving the effectiveness, transparency and coordination of existing initiatives and
financial instruments to increase knowledge transfer and enhance capacity. 

An important phrase here is "improving the effectiveness, transparency and coordination of existing initiatives." There is some concern (see especially the recently released proposal to establish a REDD+ registry) that the proliferation of support to REDD is already contributing to a certain level of disfunctionality at country level, as both implementing countries and donors struggle to establish effective ways of coordinating and harmonizing mutliple streams of support. The fact that this is happening already, at a point where total commitments are estimated at $2.5 billion but levels of delivery are undoubtedly much less, suggest that coordinating mechanisms will have a key role to play under the Partnership, which aims to deliver something on the order of $6 billion over a relatively short period of time.

Section 3 of the draft Partnership document, titled "Partner Contributions," outlines the respective commitments of developed and developing country Partners. For the former, it summarises the pledges made since Copenhagen and leaves room for a total as of 27 May 2010 (the day of the Conference). The previously discussed target is $6 billion, and with some $4.5 billion at latest count, it seems likely to be met. As for developing countries, their commitment is described as follows:

to develop REDD+ strategies, build the required capacity and create the enabling environment for REDD+, prepare and implement REDD+ actions and demonstration activities, and provide for the full and effective participation of relevant stakeholders, including indigenous peoples, local communities and civil society, in the design and implementation of REDD+, taking into account national circumstances.

The next section of the draft Partnership document outlines the "Principles of the Partnership":

In their actions under the Partnership, the efforts of the Partners will:

• • Be focused on support for developing countries' REDD+ efforts
  • Be inclusive to all committed countries as well as representatives of relevant stakeholders
  • Provide transparency around REDD+ financing, actions and results.
  • Focus on coordinated delivery of scaled up REDD+ financing to seek to close gaps, avoid overlaps and maximize effective delivery of actions and support.
  • Consider continuity with medium and long term finance needs and actions by promoting linkages with other relevant processes, including the High Level Advisory Group on Climate Finance.
  • Exchange lessons learned and transfer knowledge through discussion and presentation of our REDD+ initiatives. 
  • Seek to ensure the economic, social and environmental sustainability and integrity of our REDD+ efforts. 
  • Promote the safeguards provided by the AWG-LCA´s draft decision text on REDD+, adjusted by any COP decision on this matter.

The above Principles again highlight the importance of coordination, as well as the need to exchange lessons learned and transfer knowledge. These issues will be among the key tasks for the Partnership's Secretariat, described in a final section on "Organization of the Partnership" as follows:

We will draw on the knowledge and expertise of The Facility Management Team of the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility and the UN REDD Program Technical Secretariat for the provision of secretariat services for the partnership, under oversight of the co-chairs on behalf of the partner countries.  Their tasks will include designing and maintaining the REDD+ coordination database, organizing partnership meetings, and providing on request from the partner countries related analyses, reports and papers, as well as providing logistical support. This service will be independent of the normal functioning of the FCPF and UNREDD programme and of their respective organizations. Additional resources will be provided to them for this purpose. Specific tasks could also be undertaken by particular countries if agreed by the Partnership.  

The above paragraph, if adopted by the Conference,  would establish, for the first time, an integrated and centralized (at least in two centers) global technical support mechanism for coordinating REDD+ efforts worldwide. Together with the establishment of the Partnership itself, this would go a long way towards coordinating, rationalizing and harmonizing disparate efforts to implement REDD+ globally.

The Partnership proposal is open to comments from all countries and the general public. The deadline is 12 May at noon, CET. Feel free to post your comments below as well.

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