South-South Cooperation on Climate Change and Forests
The Brazilian experience in developing and implementation effective public policies to protect its forests and curb deforestation and in developing vegetation cover monitoring systems, which allowed better monitoring of the progress of such policies, has prompted international recognition and calls from many countries willing to establish knowledge sharing channels and partnerships for technical and institutional capacity building.
The different stages developing countries find themselves in in the process to operationalize REDD+ opens a window of opportunity for cooperation initiatives and exchange among the over 60 countries implementing the instrument.
In this context, the Brazilian Government regards South-South cooperation as an important tool to share experiences and to collaborate with other developing countries in the implementation of climate change and forests related policies, with a focus on REDD+. South-South cooperation can bring about solutions to common challenges, strengthen institutional technical and scientific capabilities, as well as it can foster consensus building among developing countries in international negotiations on climate change.
Up to 20% of the resources raised by the Amazon Fund with results-based payments may be allocated to support projects to develop systems to monitor and control deforestation in other Brazilian biomes and other tropical countries. The Fund has already supported a project, by the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), to develop forest monitoring in the Amazon Basin region and is currently developing a new project with the Central Africa Forests Commission (COMIFAC) to develop forest monitoring in the Congo Basin region.
Action Lines for South-South Cooperation on REDD+
The Brazilian government plans to organize REDD+ related South-South cooperation activities into four action lines:
(i) Forest Cover Monitoring: Investments should be made in partner countries to develop technical and institutional skills to develop monitoring systems and to enable free access to information through data sharing platforms - receiving station and access to Brazilian satellites or the ones developed in partnership with other countries (with a focus on land use). Given Brazil's capacity in developing forest cover monitoring technologies and the partnerships already established by the National Institute for Space Research in this area, Brazils considers it to be a strategic starting point to advance South-South cooperation in this field.
(ii) Developing Evidence Based Integrated Public Policy: the Brazilian government adopted specific plans to address the drivers of deforestation and to promote sustainable use of natural resources in the Amazon and the Cerrado - the Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm) and the Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Deforestation and Forest Fires in the Cerrado (PPCerrado); they are the product of extensive high level political articulation and of the integration of forest cover monitoring and law enforcement efforts.
The implementation of these policies, with the support of states, municipalities and other key actors, contributed to a significant reduction in the deforestation rates. Such initiatives have been incorporated in the National Policy on Climate Change and, along with the National REDD+ Strategy, are references for designing national actions to mitigate forest related greenhouse gases emissions in developing countries.
(iii) Measuring, Reporting and Verifying REDD+ results and developing REDD+ technical documents to be submitted to the UNFCCC: that includes the necessary steps to implement the Warsaw Framework for REDD+ and other REDD+ related decisions agreed under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). More specifically, it addresses the preparation and submission of technical documents such as: National Communication, Forest Reference Emission Levels (FREL), REDD+ Technical Annex, Biennial Update Report (BUR), summary of information on the Safeguards, as well as the facilitative processes of evaluation of the submitted documents. It also includes compiling information to produce national greenhouse gas inventories and their communication to the UNFCCC and quality and accuracy of information control processes. In addition to that, this action line may address the Brazilian experience in developing its National REDD+ Strategy.
(iv) Governance Structure and National Funds for REDD+: Brazil has earned relevant experience throughout the implementation of the Amazon Fund, the main national REDD+ results-based payments supported fund. The lessons learned by Brazil in designing and implementing the Fund may prove useful to other developing countries. The experience gathered by Brazil and other developing countries in establishing governance structures and national funds to receive results-based finance can provide valuable contribution for establishing international and national structures to enable the flow of resources for REDD+.
The Brazilian government recognized the importance of South-South cooperation in the terms of the Nationally Determined Contribution, by making a commitment to promote efforts, based on solidarity and common priorities of sustainable development, to expand cooperation initiatives with other developing countries and by inviting developed countries and relevant international organizations to further support such initiatives.
The Ministry of Environment is currently working in partnership with the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) to develop the "Brazilian Program for South-South Cooperation on Climate Change and Forests", paying special attention on cooperation opportunities with South American and African countries, particularly those Portuguese speaking.
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