United Nations Headquarters, New York - 15 May 2014:
Over 100 people attended a reception last night to celebrate the launch Community-Based REDD+ (CBR+), a new partnership between the UN-REDD Programme and the UNDP-GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP).
Made possible through the generous contribution of $4 million from the Government of Norway, and co-financed by SGP, CBR+ will provide grants of up to $50,000 directly to indigenous peoples and local communities, to empower them to fully engage in the design, implementation and monitoring of REDD+* readiness activities, and to develop experiences, lessons, and recommendations at the local level that can feed into national REDD+ processes.
As Charles McNeill (Senior Policy Advisor, UNDP) explained, CBR+ will support community-level projects that complement UN-REDD National Programmes, national REDD+ readiness processes and/or strategies. It is currently being piloted in six countries: Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay and Sri Lanka. The first grants are expected to be disbursed in late-2014.
In recognition of the strong role indigenous peoples played in driving the development of this new initiative, the launch was held during the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), and a number of prominent indigenous leaders took to the podium to applaud CBR+ and encourage indigenous peoples and communities to take full advantage of this opportunity to amplify their voice in REDD+ processes.
Joan Carling (Secretary General, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact) praised CBR+ as a way to bridge the gap between local communities and international level processes, and expressed her hope that CBR+ would facilitate greater involvement of indigenous peoples in REDD+ processes.
Kanyinke Sena (Former Chair, UNPFII) emphasized that indigenous peoples and forest communities should be at the frontline of REDD+, and called on IPs to take full advantage of the opportunity CBR+ presents. He also expressed his hope that the initiative could be expanded in the near future to serve a greater range of countries.
Rounding up the formal remarks, Delfin Ganapin (Global Manager, SGP), emphasized that REDD+ needs to be supported from the grassroots as well as from the top, and pointed to CBR+ as a key element to ensure this is the case.
*REDD+ stands for countries' efforts to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
For further information on CBR+, please contact: Dearbhla Keegan (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or Nina Kantcheva (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
For more information on the UN-REDD Programme: http://un-redd.org/
For more information on the UNDP-GEF Small Grants Programme: https://sgp.undp.org/
From left to right
First row: Joan Carling (Secretary-General, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact); Reception attendees; Kanyinke Sena (Former Chair, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues)
Second row: Delfin Ganapin (Global Manager, GEF Small Grants Programme); Reception attendees; Charles McNeill (Senior Policy Advisor UNDP/UN-REDD Programme)