May 2015: The UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries (UN-REDD) released the documents for the fourteenth meeting of its Policy Board, which will be held from 20-22 May 2015.

The documents will support consideration of the UN-REDD Programme 2016-2020 Strategic Framework as well as expressions of interest and national programmes from Chile, Ecuador, Myanmar and Peru.

Supporting ongoing work on REDD+, the UN Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) supported capacity development in spatial analysis linking biodiversity and REDD+. Through regional, national and sub-national workshops and mapping exercises, the resulting reports identify priority areas for REDD+ in order to maximize environmental, social and climate change adaptation benefits.

The work was conducted under the REDD+ Policy Assessment Centre (REDD-PAC) project and covered the countries of the Congo Basin as well as Brazil, China, the Philippines, Peru, Uganda and Viet Nam.

Work has also progressed on measurements, reporting and verification (MRV). In particular, the Forest Carbon, Markets and Communities project funded by the Government of the US released the second version of its MRV manual. The manual covers the key components of a MRV system: greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, field-based inventories and remote sensing of land cover change.

The manual is intended to support policy makers and national MRV practitioners by introducing the different approaches, data and tools associated with MRV within the framework of the decisions adopted by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). [Documents – Fourteenth Policy Board Meeting, Washington, D.C. (USA), 20-22 May 2015] [REDD-PAC Press Release] [Papers: Biodiversity Implications of REDD+] [Publication: REDD+ Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) Manual Version 2.0]