November 2014: The UN Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation (UN-REDD) released the November 2014 edition of its newsletter highlighting a regional workshop in Africa to facilitate South-South learning and the exchange of experiences on developing national REDD+ programmes.

The workshop included participants from 21 countries in Africa as well as representatives from Ecuador and Mexico who concluded that having realistic expectations and a dedicated team of specialists are critical to the success of REDD+ programmes. Also in Africa, the newsletter reports on a sub-regional workshop on national REDD+ processes targeting francophone countries. Other workshops mentioned in the newsletter include training on national forest inventories in Solomon Islands, the inaugural REDD+ Academy for the Asia-Pacific region, and the thirteenth UN-REDD Policy Board Meeting.

The newsletter announces the launch of a REDD+ website in preparation for the twentieth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as well as the involvement of UN-REDD in the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) to be held at the margins of the COP.

Finally, with regard to in-country activities, the newsletter takes note of progress towards the application of free, prior and informed consent in Honduras, the launch of a training programme on REDD+ for community radio journalists in Sri Lanka, and advances in the national forest monitoring system in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [Publication: UN-REDD Newsletter – November 2014] [IISD RS story on UNREDD Academy]