REDD+ and biodiversity

Abstract

Born and raised under the umbrella of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the topic of reducing emission from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD ) is of undeniable relevance to the regime established by the Convention on Biological Diversity. This chapter first outlines how REDD may both positively and negatively impact on biodiversity protection. It then discusses how rule development on REDD under the UNFCCC has increasingly sought to address biodiversity concerns through a system of biodiversity-related safeguards. Finally, the chapter illustrates how, in the absence of detailed rules agreed at the international level, rules developed at the national and transnational levels will play an important part in ensuring REDD contributes to, rather than undermines, biodiversity protection.