Neto, Ernesto Roessing; Gupta, Joyeeta --- "REDD+ and multilevel governance beyond the climate negotiations" [2016] ELECD 619; in Voigt, Christina (ed), "Research Handbook on REDD-Plus and International Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 289

Book Title: Research Handbook on REDD-Plus and International Law

Editor(s): Voigt, Christina

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783478309

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: REDD+ and multilevel governance beyond the climate negotiations

Author(s): Neto, Ernesto Roessing; Gupta, Joyeeta

Number of pages: 17

Abstract/Description:

Forests have been on the global agenda for at least 50 years. However, forest governance at the global level has been scattered through different organizations and forums, and comprehensive efforts to govern it globally have failed. The climate change discussions have re-energized forest governance efforts since the early days of the climate negotiations and particularly with the emergence of REDD on the agenda. Having said that, discussions on forest management have nevertheless moved rather slowly within the climate negotiations, thus leading to the emergence of discussions and decisions in parallel forums. This chapter aims to present and discuss a few of these parallel legal developments, without attempting to be comprehensive. One can distinguish four phases in forest governance and climate change. The first pre-1990 phase recognized the role of forests in the climate change problem and included a provisional target on net forest growth in the Noordwijk Declaration on Climate Change.The next phase (1990–97) focused on elaborating a forest policy commitment. Forest targets were delegated to a possible forest convention, while the 1992 UNFCCC stated that forests were both sources and sinks of greenhouse gases and that Parties should take appropriate measures. In the third phase (1997–2005), the KP of 1997 was adopted and allowed developed countries to partially meet their mitigation targets through the use of sinks.