Forests & people first: the need for universal REDD+ safeguards
A number of REDD+ countries have begun to develop their own national safeguard standards, a development that – if carried out in a participatory, transparent manner and in compliance with international obligations – is to be strongly encouraged. While taking into account national circumstances, common ground is needed at international level in order to ensure consistency if want to reduce and halt deforestation globally. A robust international framework can help forest countries in developing their own national systems and generate confidence from the international community and investors. In order to inform these processes, Greenpeace has compared the various existing REDD+ relevant safeguard policies across institutions, identified major gaps and formulated a set of recommendations that could lead to a more coherent and more practicable approach to implementing safeguards.