2 October 2014, UN-REDD news - Efforts to combat climate change and improve livelihoods by restoring forest lands continue to build momentum. This was boosted on 4 September 2014, in the lead up to the UN Climate Summit 2014, with the launch of a new collaboration between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to restore at least 150 million hectares of forest landscapes by 2020.

This new collaboration will bring together two major ongoing global initiatives to restore degraded forest landscapes worldwide – the UN-REDD Programme and its 55 partner countries, through the role of UNEP as a collaborator of the Programme; and Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration, a multi-sectoral network coordinated by IUCN.

The planned restoration of 150 million hectares of degraded forest landscapes, an area roughly the size of Alaska or almost half the size of India, will sequester an estimated one gigatonne of carbon dioxide equivalent from the atmosphere every year, reducing the current emissions gap by 11-17 per cent.

This IUCN-UNEP collaboration will also contribute to the achievement of the Bonn Challenge, a global commitment made in September 2011 to restore at least 150 million hectares of degraded forest landscapes by 2020 – generating an estimated US$ 85 billion per year in ecosystem services to benefit the rural poor in developing countries.

With policy support from governments, forest landscape restoration is an attractive proposition to harness private sector investments. Restoring degraded forest lands benefits biodiversity and generates ecosystem services such as water purification, wood for energy, pollination for agriculture and tourism enterprise opportunities.
The IUCN-UNEP collaborative initiative includes a Helpdesk function for assessments of forest restoration opportunities, and a global mapping database for carbon and non-carbon benefits of forest restoration efforts. It will also include efforts to align forest restoration with benefits under the global climate change mitigation initiative REDD+, which focuses on developing countries.

"This collaboration will add new momentum to a mission of great significance to UNEP, by strengthening a critical dimension of REDD+, which aims to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. The economic and environmental importance of forests means that we cannot just prevent their destruction, we must also unite efforts to recover this life-supporting resource," said Mette L. Wilkie, Director of Environmental Policy Implementation at UNEP and member of the UN-REDD Programme's Strategy Group.

To date, up to 20 million hectares of restoration commitments to the Bonn Challenge have been pledged by five countries and alliances. Additional pledges are expected at the UN Climate Summit 2014, and the IUCN-UNEP collaboration will encourage more countries to make pledges towards the 150 million hectare target.

Stewart Maginnis, Global Director of Nature-Based Solutions at IUCN said, "Restoring degraded lands into healthy and productive landscapes is vital for meeting international obligations on climate change, biodiversity, and desertification. The collaboration between UNEP and IUCN will help to build more expertise in countries around the world, and to restore more landscapes for the benefit of local communities, national economies and the global climate."

The collaboration will eventually benefit all 55 partner countries that UNEP works with through the UN-REDD Programme; although restoration is a higher priority for some countries than for others.  National efforts will initially focus on a few pilot projects including countries such as Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria and Indonesia.

"We look forward to this combined international support for our national efforts," said Pak Heru Prasetyo, Head of Indonesia's REDD+ Agency speaking about Indonesia's degraded forest landscapes.  "Indonesia will do its share to restore our natural ecosystems and thus rebuild lost natural capital for our country."

Source:http://www.un-redd.org/Newsletter2014October/UNEP_IUCN_Partnership/tabid/794382/Default.aspx