Washington, D.C. -- 25 January 2013 – Tropical forest experts from around the globe will convene on January 28th and 29th for a technical forum on REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation). The event, Building REDD+ Reference Levels, is being jointly hosted by the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and the global conservation organization WWF. It will focus on developing benchmarks against which many countries will measure success in reducing rates of deforestation and degradation.

 

Participants are set to include more than 30 technical experts from governments, civil society, the private sector and academia, representing key tropical forest countries including Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The forum will provide attendees with the opportunity to discuss challenges and lessons learned around quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. 

 

“This reference level forum is an important step in the development of a global REDD+ mechanism,” said Bruce Cabarle, Leader of WWF’s global Forest and Climate Initiative. “It will help to build consensus on accurate, transparent and robust reference levels – which are essential for countries that want to access climate finance for forests. Without reference levels the international community will not have meaningful benchmarks against which to measure success.”

 

This WWF-FCPF REDD+ event is taking place as global support for REDD+ ramps up, with the latest nod of approval for REDD+ in the form of $180 million in new funding to the FCPF from the nations of Germany, Norway and Finland.

 

The forum is being held at WWF-US’s headquarters in Washington, DC in conjunction with the FCPF Carbon Fund’s REDD+ Design Forum, a separate event that is dedicated to carbon accounting issues in the large-scale emissions reduction programs to be developed under the Carbon Fund. 

 

For more information about WWF’s global REDD+ work, visit: www.panda.org/forestclimate. 

 

For more information about the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, visit: bit.ly/FCPFnews.

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