Archive of completed forest-climate action projects

Forests and climate have been the focus of pioneering work by IIED since the 1980s. This archive page links to past forest projects managed by IIED with a specific climate focus.

Article, 20 December 2021
Collection
Localising forest-climate action
A programme of work engaging with locally-controlled forestry organisations to upscale effective climate change adaptation, resilience and mitigation through the restoration of forest landscape biodiversity
A group of men and women stand around an array of plants on the ground

Mozambican nurseries as shown in this image do various REDD+ implementation options such as sustainable forest management, sustainable charcoal production, regenerative agriculture and alternative livelihoods (Photo: Duncan Macqueen, IIED)

IIED’s forest team worked closely with the IIED environmental economics team and, latterly, the Climate Change research group to position forests as an essential component of climate action including:

Below are links to our more recent, archived projects.

Testing REDD+ in Mozambique

Between 2009 and 2017, this project in Mozambique’s Beira Corridor, across the provinces of Sofala, Manica and Zambezia, involved both research and delivering REDD+ ‘on the ground’ through local partners.

We published our findings in a report which sets out how smallholder activities are driving deforestation and proposes solutions. The study also provides a socioeconomic baseline against which to measure progress.

Private sector involvement with REDD+

Between 2012 and 2015, IIED worked with partners to develop national-level case studies to document private sector engagement with REDD+. The project focused on Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique.

Our analysis found important insights into ways of securing private sector engagement. We followed this up with research into how the private sector was beginning to make commitments towards zero-deforestation supply chains, specifically for cocoa.

Gender and REDD+

The success of REDD+ depends on the extent to which individual land users – including women – feel incentivised to change their behaviour and practices. Between 2012 and 2016, this project worked with local partners in Mozambique, Nepal, Tanzania and Viet Nam and carried out research on the participation of women in REDD+ processes at national and local level

Reducing forest footprints

Between 2012 and 2016, in response to the huge growth in global demand for products which lead to deforestation, the Reducing Forest Footprints project focused on finding ways to increase the relevance, effectiveness and uptake of measures to reduce deforestation. These included legislative, public sector, private sector and consumer measures.

Initiatives were analysed to learn lessons about how to increase the demand for 'deforestation-free' commodities in a way that benefited small-scale enterprises and promoted sustainable development outcomes.

Designing REDD+ to promote sustainable development and reduce poverty

Between 2009 and 2013, this project investigated the relative costs and benefits of different options for designing REDD+ programmes. The project also looked at policy choices at local, national and international levels, to see whether these supported pro-poor REDD+ models, and how they affected cost-effectiveness.

Working with in-country partners in in Brazil, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Vietnam, the project looked at selected REDD+ pilot projects to track implementation and improve understanding of their impacts on poverty reduction.

South-South REDD: a Brazil-Mozambique Initiative

Between 2009 and 2012, this initiative facilitated a collaboration between Mozambique and Brazil, preparing the way for a national REDD+ strategy for Mozambique. The project supported the preparation of the readiness preparation plan (RPP) for submission to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.

This was approved in 2012, and as a result, Mozambique had the opportunity to access US$3.8 million to establish a REDD+ strategy, policy and institutional framework.