1 July 2014: The UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation (UN-REDD) released the July 2014 edition of its newsletter, which highlights a number of REDD+ related outcomes from the first UN Environmental Assembly (UNEA). In particular, the newsletter notes that during discussions on financing a green economy, REDD+ emerged as an opportunity for the promotion of sustainable development pathways.

The newsletter also features the launch of the East Africa Initiative on Illegal Timber Trade and REDD+ by Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, a project supported by the government of Norway, INTERPOL and the UN.

With regard to national events, the newsletter notes the convening of an Active Listening Dialogue to exchange experiences and views from REDD+ stakeholders in Panama. The newsletter also highlights a national dialogue on women, gender and REDD+ in Indonesia, the release of a forest cover map in Panama, and the launch of the forest reference emission levels process in Zambia.

Additional global events reported in the newsletter include the dialogue with indigenous peoples at the UN Secretary-General’s climate summit, and the launch of Community-Based REDD+ (CBR+), a partnership between UN-REDD, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Small Grants Programme (SGP).

The bulletin also presents recent capacity building exercises such as; a workshop on methodologies for forest carbon monitoring in meso-America; training on allometric equations for forest biomass estimation in Sri Lanka; a workshop on allometric equations in Central and South Africa; and with regard to monitoring, verification and reporting (MRV). [Publication: UN-REDD Programme Newsletter – July 2014] [IISD Forest Policy & Practice article on East African Initiative]