18 May 2011: The May 2011 edition of the UN-REDD Programme Newsletter features an article on Asia Pacific and Latin America cross-regional REDD+ exchange, which highlights that delegates from Viet Nam visited Mexico and Ecuador to learn from those countries’ experience of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) and community-led forest management, while Mexico and Ecuador learned from Viet Nam’s experience in establishing a national REDD+ Programme.

The newsletter also includes an article on the UN-REDD Programme’s briefing, held on 9 May 2011, in Geneva, Switzerland, on partner country progress to the diplomatic corps in Geneva, during which the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia spoke about their progress on REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries, as well as conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of carbon stocks). The newsletter also features articles on: the technical meeting on the development of national forest monitoring systems, held from 16-20 May 2011, in Rome, Italy, by the Brazilian National Institute of Space Research (INPE), the UN-REDD Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO); the launch by the UN Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) of a study titled “REDDy – Set – Grow: Opportunities and roles of financial institutions in forest-carbon markets,” which underscores that the financial sector must intensify its engagement in REDD+; and the launch of the “GLOBE Legislator Forest Initiative” by Global Legislators Organisation (GLOBE) International, in collaboration with the UN-REDD Programme, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and senior legislators from Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia and Mexico, aimed at preparing for REDD+ legislation. [Publication: UN-REDD+ Newsletter, Issue 18] [Climate Change Policy & Practice Story on the Launch of the UNEP FI Publication]