Briefing paper on REDD+, Rights and Indigenous Peoples: Lessons from REDD+ Initiative in Asia

This briefing paper aims to outline the lessons learn from the Cancun Agreement and explores how far the REDD+ countries in Asia have advanced in addressing social and environmental issues in their REDD+ strategy drafting. From asking which experiences indigenous peoples have made so far in engaging with REDD+, the briefing paper reflects on a few piloting initiatives which have been found particularly interesting and inspiring. Eight of the 44 countries participating as pilot countries in the three major multilateral REDD+ schemes the UN-REDD Programme, Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and Forest Investment Program (FIP) are in Asia: Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. These countries are at various stages in the REDD+ Readiness Phase. Indonesia and Vietnam are the most advanced. In June, Indonesia published its national REDD+ Strategy and Vietnam is one of the three countries that have already presented tentative emission reductions programs to the FCPF’s Carbon Fund. It is a step towards the formulation of the Emission Reductions Program Idea Notes (ER-PIN) which, when approved, will lead to the signing of 5-year Emission Reductions Payment Agreements worth of 30-40 million USD. In other countries, like Thailand, the progress has been very slow,and several others have only recently joined and thus barely started. This publication has been published with the support from IWGIA and others.