Colombia’s forests are under threat from agriculture, infrastructure, mining, illicit crops, and migration. Between 1990 and 2010, Colombia lost 5.4 million ha of natural forests. Meanwhile, the nascent peace process and strong attention to forest issues in the media have helped bring forest protection high on the political agenda in Colombia. In 2009, the Government committed to end deforestation in the Amazon by 2020, and has recently committed to end net nationwide deforestation by 2030. To achieve these goals, Colombia is actively engaging with the international community to find ways to protect and restore its forests. It is working with a broad range of international partners to develop programs in all of the country’s main forest regions. Complementing these programs at regional and sub-national level are a growing number of private sector-led projects, and the Colmbian government is committed to encouraging such projects alongside its own, public-led programs.
Colombia is actively engaging with the international community to find ways to protect and restore its forests.
The diversity of REDD+ related projects and programs in Colombia is a key strength, but also brings challenges in coordination and cohesion. Colombia seeks to adopt a ‘nested’ approach that provides a framework for cohesions between national, sub-national and project-based initiatives. The aim of this project – implemented by Climate Focus and Winrock International – is to support Colombia in developing such a framework and in implementing other elements of developing the pilot phase of its National REDD+ Strategy.
The project supports accurate accounting for emission reductions, facilitates results-based funding, increases community and private sector participation in REDD+, and develops important lessons for other REDD+ countries and UNFCCC negotiations.
The main activities include:
- supporting the development of sub-national reference levels (RLs);
- supporting the development of policy guidance on the development of sub-national RLs and monitoring and reporting work within the national strategy;
- supporting the development of a REDD+ registry to record, track, and share relevant information at the national, sub-national, and project levels;
- supporting national institutional capacity building;
- supporting the development of a ‘nested’ framework that delineates the relations between national, sub-national and project-based emission reduction activities in the forest sector; and
- supporting national institutional capacity building.
This project is supported by The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection.
