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Projects : Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests (LEAF) Program

Background

Forests cover 26 percent of the Asia-Pacific region¹, providing a wide array of socioeconomic and environmental benefits to millions of people.  Trees are one of nature’s most efficient ways of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing carbon.  The region’s forests, with their unique flora and fauna, are also important sources of income and employment and contribute significantly to people’s health and the economic growth of the surrounding countryside.  Yet despite the benefits, Asian forests continue to be destroyed at an alarming rate (nearly 1% per year, or more than one million hectares per year), as land is converted for crops or grazing.  Unsustainable and illegal logging, rapid urbanization, and climate change are also adding significantly to the rapid decline.  Forest loss and degradation are important factors in global climate change, representing about 15 percent of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually.  Roughly half of this amount comes from deforestation and forest degradation in Asia.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has long recognized the contributions that Asia’s forests make to the region’s economies and the communities that depend on them and is constantly seeking new and innovative ways to encourage better forest management. One set of ideas centers around creating incentives, which encourage communities to manage their forest lands more effectively for their own benefit, while contributing to global efforts to address climate change. This is consistent with international strategies to promote REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation) and other approaches which seek to create financial value for protecting forests and the carbon they store.

Regional Approach

This is the context in which USAID’s new LEAF (Lowering Emissions in Asia’s Forests) program has been launched.  Implemented by Winrock International, LEAF takes a regional approach to strengthening forest management in six core countries: Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand and Vietnam through:

• Sharing effective approaches to common challenges;
• Developing regional models, methodologies and standards;
• Replicating and scaling up of innovations in other Asian countries;
• Standardizing information, data and systems; and
• Addressing trans-boundary issues and causes of deforestation.

This approach allows the six to learn directly from each other – and U.S. experts – what works and what does not, as each seeks to balance competing demands for timber and agricultural land, while working to enhance forest carbon storage.  Through these efforts, LEAF also assists in preparing them for the emerging international REDD+ framework.

Activities

Replicating success through regional platforms and partnerships. LEAF helps the six core countries identify the most economical and effective ways to manage their land and forests and works through regional partnerships to replicate successful approaches.  These partnerships also focus on developing common scientific standards and protocols and preparing countries for potential REDD+ activities. In addition, the program puts considerable emphasis on strengthening national and provincial government agencies and existing organizations, as they are the key to sustaining momentum on forest and land management issues. 

Improving policies, establishing incentives for GHG reductions.  LEAF’s goal is to improve policies that govern forest and land use in order to achieve long-term emissions reductions.  One way to encourage this is through market incentives that reward local communities and private sector companies to manage forests responsibly.  Another is to address impediments to proper forest management.  For example, many people in rural Asia lack clear titles to their property. Without these, they have little incentive to manage lands for long-term sustainability or plant trees that might take a generation to reach maturity.  LEAF will look at issues like this and work with governments and the private sector to promote responsible forest management and land use. 

Monitoring forest carbon.  It requires considerable scientific and technical ability to monitor changes in forest cover and assess the amount of carbon a forest contains. LEAF works to strengthen each country’s technical capability through specialized trainings in REDD+ implementation, and the development of educational curricula on climate change and REDD+ issues.

Using pilot projects to demonstrate innovation.  Many a good idea has failed to deliver results when put to the test.  As good stewards of US taxpayers’ funds, USAID specifically designed the LEAF program around pilot projects whose function is to demonstrate the effectiveness of particular approaches to low carbon development, inform policies, and support national REDD+ strategies. Those that prove effective can then be scaled up and replicated through regional platforms and partnerships.  

Partners

Winrock International is the prime implementing partner for the LEAF program. Winrock is a world leader in forest carbon and ecosystem science, providing training and capacity building services across the globe.

SNV–Netherlands Development Organization and Climate Focus are partners of Winrock.  SNV is recognized for its expertise in community forestry, rural development, and local renewable energy. Climate Focus is a leader in climate policy development.

Click here to download the program flyer.

LEAF Program Updates - November, 2011

The Climate Focus LEAF team assessed the institutional, political and legal setting for REDD+ and forest management in Cambodia, Lao PDR, PNG, Thailand and Vietnam and submitted the final assessment report to USAID on October 31. The report provides an overview of the REDD+ readiness status of each country, insights into Government priorities and main areas of work with regards to REDD+ and offers recommendations for activities to be taken at national and sub-national level to provide for a regulatory framework to get REDD+ off the ground. A similar assessment is currently being carried out for Malaysia with submission expect towards the end of December. For further information on the LEAF project or on the assessment report, please contact Anna Lehmann at a.lehmann@climatefocus.com.