REDD-Programme for Early Mover - REM

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ContextDeforestation is one of the major sources of greenhouse gases, accounting for roughly eleven per cent of global emissions. It primarily occurs in the tropical regions of Latin America, Asia and Africa, releasing large quantities of CO2 within a very short period. Depending on the region, the chief causes of deforestation are the expansion of livestock breeding and agriculture – including soybean and palm oil plantations, mining of mineral resources, illegal logging and collection of fuelwood. Forest conservation therefore has a key role to play in climate change mitigation.Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) is the concept adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for climate change mitigation through forest conservation. It provides compensatory payments for measurable and verifiable CO2 emission reductions. The carbon stored in forests is thereby designated an economic value and forest conservation is factored into economic decision-making processes. REDD Early Movers (REM) contributes to the application of this approach in selected countries.ObjectiveThe provision of support for REDD bridging finance – in accordance with UNFCCC provisions – promotes forest conservation and thereby contributes to climate change mitigation.ApproachREM supports REDD pioneers, also called Early Movers, who are already taking the initiative themselves in forest conservation for climate change mitigation. The programme rewards the climate change mitigation performance of Early Movers and promotes sustainable development for the benefit of small-scale farmers as well as forest-dependent and indigenous communities through fair benefit sharing.REM works in accordance with international social and environmental safeguards, in particular the Cancun Safeguards and international standards for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of CO2 emissions. The programme is one of the first mechanisms for results-based REDD financing.REM is a global German development cooperation programme combining carbon finance from KfW Development Bank with operational support from GIZ. Since April 2018 the program’s budget amounts to 312.5 million Euro: 121.5 million Euro including 12 million Euro for technical assistance are funded by BMZ; 29 million Euro by BMU; and mandates of Norway to KfW amount to 75 million Euro, mandates of UK to 87 million Euro. By June 2019, KfW has payed 127 million Euro of results-based finance to Brazil, Ecuador und Colombia. This corresponds to the annual per capita carbon emissions of about 6 million German citizens.Carbon finance: KfW Development Bank makes payments for independently verified REDD emission reductions achieved by Early Movers. The REM partner countries make their own contribution in order to keep the complexity of risk management low. The calculations of carbon stored in forest ecosystems are also based on conservative estimates by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.Operational support: GIZ provides technical and policy advice to Early Movers on the development of functional systems for carbon financing under REM. To this end, institutions are strengthened, instruments are made available and coordination mechanisms are created for comprehensive processes with interest groups. Advisory support is provided, for instance on gender-sensitive benefit sharing programmes to take women into account, on risk management and safeguards and their monitoring, and on the establishment and expansion of REDD registers, reference levels and MRV systems. Early Movers are supported in developing and implementing REDD strategies. Particular emphasis is to be placed on involving additional sectors such as agriculture and livestock breeding, which are considered drivers of deforestation. Actors in these sectors play a key role in halting deforestation. They must be included in benefit sharing, just like indigenous communities, which have traditionally conserved the forest.ResultsREM works in three countriesso far: the Federal States of Acre and Mato Grosso in Brazil, Ecuador and the Amazon region of Colombia. The Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative NICFI provides Carbon Finance via REM for Ecuador and Colombia, the United Kingdom for Colombia, Acre and Mato Grosso. Carbon finance in Acre started in 2012, and first payments took place in Colombia in 2016, followed by Mato Grosso and Ecuador in 2018. Operational support strengthens carbon accounting (monitoring, registers, reference levels) and safeguard systems in Ecuador and Colombia. In Colombia and Mato Grosso, the participatory construction of benefit sharing programs for Indigenous Peoples was supported and a management system for social and ecological risks of investments developed. Additional country programs are under pre-scoping.

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