June 2010: The Program on Forests (PROFOR) of the World Bank has released its latest newsletter, highlighting PROFOR’s recent activities relating to forests and climate change.In the past six months, PROFOR has financed publications on: reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD) in drylands, written by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED); and a user-friendly manual for project proponents on how to conduct cost-effective and credible social impact assessment for “pro-poor” REDD schemes, produced by Forest Trends and partners. PROFOR has also sponsored a two-day workshop, which took place in April 2010, in Washington DC, US, and brought together development practitioners and civil society organizations working primarily in Latin America and the Caribbean. The central theme of the workshop was to learn from Mexico’s extensive community forestry experience, especially in order to build on local community initiatives for REDD schemes. During the workshop, Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom shared her views on REDD, emphasizing the importance of involving local communities.

The Newsletter also highlights 15 new knowledge activities launched by PROFOR since the beginning of 2010. Those activities related to climate change include: adapting desert cloud forests in Yemen and Oman to climate change; developing benefit sharing arrangements that work for forest-dependent communities and can inform the design of benefit sharing for REDD initiatives; and enhancing South-South cooperation and knowledge sharing for REDD in Latin America and the Caribbean in order to improve REDD readiness in participant countries. [PROFOR June 2010 Newsletter]