REDD Deployment Within the Ethiopian Forestry Sector

Download or read book REDD Deployment Within the Ethiopian Forestry Sector written by J. Diels and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change is considered as one of the biggest challenges of this time, demanding urgent global response. The forestry sector plays an important role in the climate change debate as it accounts for about 17% of the global green house gas emissions. Because most developing countries have limited resources (socially, technologically and financially) to adapt to climate change, they are the most vulnerable to its effects. Africa, and in particular Ethiopia, is especially vulnerable to climate variability and change, because it has to cope with multiple stresses and has a low adaptive capacity to environmental and social change. Moreover, Ethiopia is faced with a high degree of deforestation and forest degradation. In 2007 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change introduced the REDD+ policy as a measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support developing countries in their efforts to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. REDD+ stands for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation with additional attention to conservation and sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks. It is based on the assumption that forests are only likely to contribute to climate change mitigation if their value increases to a level that makes the protection of forests consistent with socio-economic development strategies. Even though REDD+ is not formally adopted so far and is therefore not yet legally binding, in several countries REDD initiatives are emerging. Moreover, already some international systems for climate payments exist, such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Also Ethiopia is actively involved in the climate change debate. A CDM project has been launched and a REDD+ preparedness programme has been initiated. Also a regional REDD program is currently running. However there is still much uncertainty about how the Ethiopian forestry sector can incorporate climate concerns. To enable a proper implementation of REDD+ in Ethiopia, it is important to have a good understanding about different forestry development options in the country. In a recent effort to identify possible forestry futures, four scenarios were identified on basis of two components that affect the forestry sector. The two components are economic policy and political governance. By combining the two components, four forestry scenarios were identified: 1. Miserable forestry: This scenario can be characterized as Business-As-Usual scenario. It is based on the assumption that the current policy regime continues. The scenario describes a situation in which forest management is highly controlled by the state and decisions are made centrally. The rural economy policy is agricultural based with forestry being of minor importance. 2. Social forestry: In this scenario the rural economy policy is still agricultural based. However the governance system is decentralized, which provides forest dependent people with more secure tenure rights. 3. Economic forestry: In this scenario the economy is moving towards a liberal system and the government systems is decentralized allowing more regional and local authority. This stimulated the development of forestry as an economic enterprise. 4. Forestry in transition: Also this scenario is based on the development of a more liberal economy, resulting in an increase of private sector investments. However, land-use policies are still dominated by the central government and forests remain owned and managed by the state.