Sri Lanka joins UNREDD for the role of forests to address climate change

By Harsha Udayakantha Peiris

The Department of Forests under the Ministry of Environment, with the support of FAO, UNDP and UNEP, has taken an important step towards making forests a major part of Sri Lanka’s strategy to combat climate change, deforestation and forest degradation which are parts of the main sources of the increase of Green House Gases (GHG) into the atmosphere and climate change.

A consultation workshop in this regard was organised on 12 January at Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI), where key stakeholders were consulted as part of the process of developing UN-REDD Programme Proposal.

Over 50 forestry experts and stakeholders met at the workshop to validate the Sri Lankan proposal to UN-REDD which will provide FAO, UNDP and UNEP assistance to prepare Sri Lanka to participate in the global REDD programmes that also include receiving funds to the forestry sector.

A national REDD Taskforce and Technical Working Groups will also be formed, to implement further activities.

The United Nations UN-REDD Programme is a Collaborative initiative to prepare countries to participate in the global programmes on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD).

The UNREDD builds the convening power and expertise of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The Programme assists developing countries to prepare and implement their national REDD strategies and mechanisms to improve forest governance.

Expressing views on this innovative venture, Anura Sathurusinghe – Conservator of Forests at the Department of Forests stated that the programme will be carried out through the Climate Change Secretariat (CCS) established under the Ministry of Environment and headed by a Director. “They will work on both climate change mitigation and adaptation. Countries like Sri Lanka will have to adapt, as our mitigation functions are minimal. So the adaptation is the key thing for us here. An adaptation policy document has also been drafted and sooner will be submitted to the cabinet as well,” he said.

In September 2009 Sri Lanka applied for the UNREDD programme and became a member in October the same year. It was also the first time the UN invited the other parties to get the membership of the REDD programme.

Sathurusinghe further said that two funds namely the UN REDD programme Multi Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) and the Forest Carbon Development Facility (FCDF) of the World Bank have been initiated to act as the two funding agencies. The funds will facilitate the developing countries to prepare for future REDD programmes that are implemented through the initial three year programme starts from 2012. “Sri Lanka has requested US $ 4 million for the initial implementation of the programme for the first three years,” he said.

“The entire programme will run through three stages and the initial three year implementation is accounted as the first stage of the process. The first three years therefore, will mainly focus on capacity building and awareness programmes with the participation of all stake holders and various communities that will extend even from the grass root levels. The programme will walk into the school communities as well,” Sathurusinghe said.

Conservation of forest biodiversity has become a special relevance to Sri Lanka as the forests in Sri Lanka contain most of the biodiversity but are put at a risk by continuous deforestation and forest degradation. According to the last forest cover survey, 23.9% of the country is covered by natural forests; however, over the last 6 decades, forest cover has been reduced by over 50% taking into account that the average rate of deforestation is about 0.01% per year.

The successful implementation of the UNREDD programme worldwide will also consider on carbon trading compensations to countries with a thicker forest coverage and a richer bio-diversity in the future.

Pix courtesy UN-FAO