February 2013: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UNEP Risø Centre have launched a report, titled “Translating lessons learned from financing forest projects into national REDD+ strategy development and implementation.” The report uses examples from eight projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America to generate advice on structuring national REDD+ programmes, which it says offer the greatest potential for scaling up investment in REDD+.

The report emphasizes that financing remains the fundamental challenge facing forest carbon projects. It indicates that public-private partnerships have proven to be the best way to attract finance and ensure good individual project management.

The report also indicates that forest carbon projects are not as attractive as standard carbon projects from an investment standpoint, and that a more stable and well-developed carbon credit market for REDD+ and for international rules on the quantification of costs and benefits from REDD+ investments is needed before this can be expected to change. [Publication: Translating Lessons Learned from Financing Forest Projects into National REDD+ Strategy Development and Implementation]