Sky Rainforest Rescue and REDD+

Through Sky Rainforest Rescue, WWF, Sky and the Acre state government are piloting a practical approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation – known as REDD+. While international climate negotiations are debating how to design this approach on a global scale, few practical examples exist of how REDD+ can work to reduce deforestation and provide benefits down to the local level for forest people.

Lessons from our work in Acre can help to showcase how REDD+ can be designed to strengthen the rights and livelihoods of local communities and indigenous people. These lessons will be particularly useful as an example of how REDD+ can work with subsistence farmers and other people who are dependent on the forest.

See our briefing paper here.

Acre – a model of good governance
Acre’s ambitions to reduce emissions from deforestation are part of a broader vision to shift to a forest-based green economy in the state. Over the past decade, Acre has put into practice a series of policies to jointly reduce poverty and achieve environmental conservation. In that time, deforestation has reduced faster than the Brazilian national average, while economic growth and a number of social indicators (including literacy, infant mortality and sanitation) have improved.

Today, Acre is a frequently referenced example of the kind of governance required to effectively tackle deforestation and reduce associated emissions.

This commitment was recently enshrined in state legislation through Acre’s System of Incentives for Environmental Services (SISA) law. Approved in October 2010, SISA has created the legal foundation for valuing a range of environmental services (including carbon storage, freshwater provision and climate regulation) and providing positive incentives for forest people to sustainably manage these.

Today SISA is seen as one of the first comprehensive laws incorporating REDD+ to cover an entire state. Click here for an overview of the law as of December 2010.

Sky Rainforest Rescue and SISA
Through Sky Rainforest Rescue, WWF and Sky are helping Acre to implement SISA in 3 million hectares of high priority. By supporting two key mechanisms – a voluntary land certification scheme and the improvement of market chains for sustainable forest products such as rubber– we are piloting an approach to forest conservation that provides benefits to local, forest-dependent people.

As a pilot, Sky Rainforest Rescue will be important for rolling out SISA across Acre. But this work will also have valuable lessons for REDD+ globally. Lessons from Sky Rainforest Rescue can help demonstrate how the benefits of REDD+ can be delivered to both achieve conservation and strengthen the rights and livelihoods of local communities.

Acre’s SISA law and the Sky Rainforest Rescue project are already part of the growing literature on REDD+ practice, such as through CIFOR’s ongoing global comparative study on REDD+. As Sky Rainforest Rescue progresses, we will also be sharing lessons through our website.

Useful links

• Sky Rainforest Rescue: Piloting approaches for benefit sharing and strengthening local-level forest governance, as an example of how REDD+ can deliver benefits to local communities (WWF, 2011)
• Acre: The Challenge of a Green Economy Governor Tiao Viana’s presentation at the 2011 World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment (Oxford, 28-30 June 2011) 
• WWF’s Forest and Climate Initiative Factsheet
• CIFOR Global Comparative Study on REDD+
• The Context of REDD+ in Brazil: Drivers, agents and institutions A 2010 CIFOR publication featuring Sky Rainforest Rescue
• Grounding the REDD+ debate: Preliminary evidence from pilot initiatives in the Brazilian Amazon A 2010 CIFOR publication featuring Sky Rainforest Rescue

For more information, please contact WWF.