Forests in a Changing Climate: A Sourcebook for Integrating REDD into Academic Programmes

Abstract

One important element of the climate change mitigation discussions is the role of forests and specifically the internationally-agreed activities for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation while promoting conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancing forest carbon stocks (REDD ). REDD encapsulates many of the challenges and opportunities for addressing climate change and the need for increasing expertise in order to do so. For REDD programmes to be successfully devised in countries, technical understanding is needed on carbon accounting, national forest inventories, spatial planning and biodiversity. In addition, there is a need for addressing environmental governance, cross-sectorial policies and legal reforms, and stakeholder participation. Some elements are very specific to REDD such as the social and environmental safeguards outlined in the UNFCCC Cancun Agreements (2010), and the Warsaw Framework for REDD implementation (2013), while others are about a larger paradigm shift in national development strategies, which is not limited to REDD or forests but rather address issues related to the transition to an inclusive Green Economy. This sourcebook is designed to give an overview of the key topics related to forests and climate change, under the overarching and evolving REDD narrative; with the purpose of facilitating the integration of this new knowledge domain into academic programmes. The sourcebook provides detailed references for further study in each module, and can be used comprehensively or with a focus on a specific topic of interest or relevance for the course of study. From a pedagogical point of view, Forests in a Changing Climate is aimed at university professors and graduate students from different academic disciplines (forestry, public policy, environmental science, economics, etc.) interested in teaching a course or conducting a lecture on REDD. The content of the book is largely based on the knowledge generated by the United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD Programme). Members of UNEP’s Global Universities Partnership on Environment and Sustainability (GUPES), especially those working on forests and environment, are encouraged to use the sourcebook and provide feedback. Although the sourcebook is primarily for academia, the text will also be a very useful resource for policy makers and practitioners in the environment and forestry sectors, who seek to gain a deeper knowledge of REDD. Engaging academia and training the next generation of experts is crucial in order to ensure that the world’s best efforts are directed at solving the climate change crisis. We hope that this sourcebook will increase knowledge of REDD, a tremendous opportunity to conserve and manage the world’s forests for all their values while also providing much needed climate change mitigation.