December 2018: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP, or UN Environment) has released a brief on ‘Planning for REDD+ Benefits Beyond Carbon,’ which shares results from the UN-REDD Programme. The brief underscores the potential contributions of UN-REDD Programme projects on planning for REDD+ to the SDGs and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

The brief aims to help countries engaged in REDD+ planning to consider additional environmental and social benefits, including biodiversity conservation, provision of food, fuel and fiber, support to local livelihoods and soil erosion control, using an integrated land-use planning approach. The brief further seeks to build capacity on the use of spatial analyses to help identify areas where REDD+ could deliver non-carbon benefits.

On the SDGs, the brief describes REDD+ contributions to SDG 13 (climate action) and SDG 15 (life on land). For SDG 13, the brief highlights contributions to climate change mitigation through supporting countries in the use of spatial analyses to plan for REDD+ actions that reduce emissions and deliver environmental and social benefits. The brief argues that these analyses help countries to: design interventions that strengthen adaptive capacity and resilience to climate-related hazards and natural disasters (contributing to SDG target 13.1); integrate climate measures into national planning, policies and strategies (contributing to SDG target 13.2); and improve education, awareness raising and human and institutional capacity on climate change mitigation (in line with SDG target 13.3).

Consideration of non-carbon benefits in national and provincial level planning can strengthen implementation of REDD+, the SDGs and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

REDD+ actions contribute to several SDG 15 targets by focusing on the consideration of benefits beyond carbon in REDD+ and helping countries to integrate biodiversity and ecosystem values into national and local planning and poverty reduction strategies, in line with SDG target 15.9. Further, countries can design REDD+ actions to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services (SDG target 15.1) and mountain ecosystems (SDG target 15.4) as well as to promote the sustainable use of forests and halt deforestation (SDG target 15.2) and reduce habitat degradation and tackle biodiversity loss (SDG target 15.5).

On the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the brief highlights the contributions of REDD+ to Strategic Goals A, B, C and D. As an illustration, UN-REDD Programme projects help countries to identify overlap between areas of high risk of deforestation and areas that are home to endangered species, which helps countries to prioritize areas for REDD+ and sustainable forest management interventions (Aichi Targets 5 and 7) that can reduce pressures on biodiversity and forests while contributing to improvements in species conservation status (Aichi Target 12).

The brief highlights the results of the UN-REDD Programme, which supports 64 partner countries around the world. Twenty-two countries have published a National REDD+ Strategy or Action Plan, all of which include achieving non-carbon benefits among their strategies, goals or objectives. The brief underscores how the consideration of non-carbon benefits in national and provincial level planning can strengthen REDD+ implementation and simultaneously help countries to achieve the SDGs and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. [Publication: Planning for REDD+ Benefits Beyond Carbon]